JO GETS SICK

It was Friday night and for two days Jo had been vomiting and crying out in pain.  It was off and on so I kept hoping it would get better and I wouldn't have to take him in...but it didn't.  Steve and I took a gamble and decided to sneak out for a quick date knowing that we might end up taking Jo in that night.  We got as far as being seated and are drinks brought to us before we got a phone call from the kids.  They wanted us to come home, they were worried about Jo.  Steve threw a few bucks down onto the table and we told the waiter we had a family emergency at home.  So much for date night.

 I was kicking myself for waiting so long only because Friday nights are the WORST time to go to the ER.  Thankfully the nurses know Jo and got us in quickly.  We still had to wait a long time before we even saw the doctor.  Meanwhile, Steve went and brought me some dinner.  I was grateful that date night wasn't totally cancelled.  He even brought me some dessert!

 Jo was crying off and on due to the pain and threw up once.  After I was done eating and said goodbye to Steve, I climbed into the bed with him.  That made him happy.

 Because Jo came in with an irregular heartbeat on top of everything else, they did a quick EKG on him to make sure he was okay.

 We arrived at the ER at 7pm and didn't get out of there until 3am.  It was a LONG night.

 After the ambulance took Jo to Dartmouth, I quickly ran home to grab some things and kidnapped Stevie too.  It's always nice to have some company while we are away.

 Brady came up the next day to visit.  I always hate being away from him for very long.

 By Monday they started feeding him and at first things went okay.  They started him at a very little amount.

 But as they increased his feeds, the pain came back.  It was so sad to see him hurting.

 He got some pain meds that seemed to take the edge off, but he still wasn't a happy boy.  

 The doctor did all kinds of tests to try and figure out his pain but was unsuccessful.  She said because he has so much scar tissue in his GI tract and because he's had so many surgeries that it was possible he might have a small kink or twist in his intestines.  They way she would fix that was to decompress his GI tract over the course of 12 hours.  So all night long he was hooked up to suction and his feeds were stopped.

The next morning he was a happy boy, the suctioning didn't seem to bother him over night.

 During that time away I was grateful for be able to fact time with my family.  It made being away a little easier.  It still didn't take away the pain of separation.  Poor Brady was so sad and confused.

 Jo had an abdominal ultrasound to make sure everything was good.  Sure enough it was.

 So after his stomach was decompressed, we started full feeds again and waited.  After six hours and no pain we got the green light to go home.  Whatever happened worked and we were both grateful.  It was so good to see Jo's happy, smiling face again.