Day 252 - Small Bowel Series, Record # of Diapers, & Scheduled for Discharge

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

James had his Small Bowel Series at 9:30am this morning. A small bowel series is an x-ray examination of the small bowel using fluoroscopy and an orally ingested contrast material called barium. Fluoroscopy makes it possible to see internal organs in motion. When coated with barium, the radiologist is able to view and assess the anatomy and function of the small bowel. Mom was not allowed to come down to Radiology. It took the whole day to get the read done so we could know the results. We found out towards the end of the day that the results were normal and that there was nothing to be concerned about. The contrast that was put through his j-tube really cleaned James out. He had nine bowel movements for the day. At one point, three huge diapers within 1 hour. Just in case something we'll share that majority of this diapers were pretty liquidy and yellow however there were hard green like pebbles in his stool. The doctor said that that was most likely just stool that had been stuck in his bowels. It's kinda scary that crap is already happening as an infant. Literally.

 

Mom talked to the PICU Doctor about the results of the procedure and she wanted to discuss discharge. She asked about tomorrow or Friday. Mom let her know that Friday would work better for discharge since Dad does have to work and would need to cancel meetings with such short notice. There are a lot of other factors like letting our discharge coordinator know, getting an updated med schedule, getting an updated wean schedule for Clonidine, getting our prescriptions from the pharmacy (which last time took 48 hours). Also, and most importantly James has labs 💉 scheduled for Thursday morning to check his electrolyte levels. We are not trying to do what happened last time which is draw labs the morning of discharge to figure what changes to meds we need to make that same day. No. Mom also needs to inform our primary insurance, secondary  insurance, home health staffing agency, and the RT from our DME.

All that being said, come time for shift change and the Doctor on nights was not so understanding. He comes in and says "Ok the report shows normal, absolutely nothing, so tomorrow you'll go home." Mom said, "Well then I need to let my husband know and the discharge coordinator. We also still need to do bloodwork tomorrow and are waiting on the meds from the pharmacy". He says, "Well if I were you I would run out of here". Mom said, "Yes I understand that, it's just that my husband has to cancel his whole day tomorrow to be here also". He says, "Okay if you don't want to leave because you're more comfortable here then we can do Friday". 🙄 (Let's talk about how comfortable this bed is). Mom said, "No it's more like I can't do this by myself". He's like, "Fine then Friday". So yeah what a great bedside manner note to leave on. We get it, you need the bed.

P.S. If you read the blog and are supporting James through his journey we would love you to participate in our video montage of everyone singing his lullaby. Please see the James Weston lullaby post for more details. ❤️

P.P.S. Thank you so much for the lullaby submissions so far! It's so exciting to have all of you be a part of something so special! 😭