Discharged Today

Dear Son was discharged this afternoon from the hospital. The gastroenteritis ran it's course and he appears to be back to his normal self. He should be able to return to school tomorrow. The best part is that I finally got some answers and we were able to rule some things out.

His pediatric neurologist came in today and felt that the scopolamine patch contributed to Dear Son's vomiting issues due to it's effects on the central nervous system. He made some changes to the amount/volume of the formula Dear Son is getting and we'll see if Dear Son does a little better after that. If not, we may need to change the rate at which I feed him via the feeding pump. I felt much better after this since I wasn't comfortable attributing all of his issues to the gastroenteritis simply because both of the vomiting episodes that preceeded each hospitalization occurred immediately at the end of his feedings. I am glad he was able to figure this out.

Shortly thereafter, the nurse from the g-tube clinic came by and he confirmed that the Mini Button that was recently installed appeared to the be the right size and should not be causing any obstruction. (As I previously mentioned, Dear Son had obstruction issues related to a g-button several years ago.)

Upon returning home, I googled the scopolamine patch and found this article indicating decreased absorption of oral medications due to decreased gastric motility and decreased gastric empyting. Knowing this will make it easier to problem solve from this point forward. Should Dear Son continue to have issues with the volume of the formula he is getting, we can always switch from two cans of the current formula to one can of a higher calorie formula to reduce the volume in addition to decreasing the rate should that be needed.

Finally, I was glad that Dear Son didn't have a Nissen. If he did, he would have been even more uncomfortable due to the motility and decreased emptying since it would have made it more difficult for him to vomit.

Hopefully, he'll sleep well tonight and things can get back to normal. There was a high point to the hospitalization however. Last night, Dear Son was sleeping while I was reading a book. I glanced over from time to time watching him sleep when I looked over and saw him smiling in his sleep. It wasn't just a grin but a great big smile. It was beautiful to see and even more beautiful to know that he was happy. It must have been a pretty good dream because he was smiling for quite a while. The last time I saw him smiling in his sleep was when he was a baby. I can't begin to tell you how much I loved that moment.