A Very Bad Trade.

You know that scene in the movie “dances with wolves” where Wind In His Hair negotiates a trade for Dances with Wolves and another tribe member and he says “Good. Trade.” – Ok maybe you don’t. But basically, this morning, I get the BAD end of a “trade” with Ben. One that I made while unconscious. He had gotten up to change 2 of Kendall’s night-time diapers, so he told me this morning when the unmistakable odor of an emptying intestine wafted in that it was my turn.

I think even if she had TRIED to make a huger mess it could not have happened. i’ll spare you too many gory details (and I won’t even subject you to the pics I took to text to Ben in the other room) – but suffice it to say it was beyond nasty. More disturbing than an entire colons worth of fecal matter literally exploded all over was the fact that her entire g-tube (from her stomach to the drainage bag) was filled with thick bloody drainage.  ok sorry now that everyone is beyond grossed out – i’ll just say that the stuff that continued to pour out of her stomach and intestines was disturbing to say the least. But she was acting ok – so off to church we trudged.  Besides being slightly klutzier than normal, all seemed ok – but she had a definite fever when we got home and put her to bed.  It was much higher than hospital orders to get the line cultured – but not quite at our new higher baseline we set a couple weeks ago with complex care – so we let her rest.

She had come back down on the temp after a little rest, and still seemed to be ok, and the bleeding had slowed WAY down (I was still having to blast bloody clots out of the end of her tube every so often with warm water) – so we let her play again. But sure enough towards bedtime she just had “that look” to her again, the temp was back up, HR (heartrate) up again….I hate the nonspecific but definitely not good things she throws out there to keep me on my toes! I honestly have no idea which way to think at this point. We know her platelets are in a normal range, but they aren’t of the best quality (picture a company who has all of its positions staffed, but those workers aren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree – that is kendall’s bone marrow most of the time!) So it could be an early (and rather violent!) response to a possible line infection (worst case scenario), it could be a UTI or bad tummy virus (not great but do-able), or it could be a stoma infection (the insertion site of her G-J tube has an infection – best case scenario). OR – it could all just be kendall’s random kendallisms for the week. She isn’t due for labs this week, so we are kind of in the dark unless we can’t keep her temp down or she starts bleeding again. Either of those things would mean we need to actually head in – even though I am fighting with all my might to NOT entertain that idea.

{the picture is from two weeks ago waiting for her tube change – she is ultra puffy from gut crappiness that week – normally her chin is nowhere near touching her chest!}

Hopefully she doesn’t decide to spike a higher fever or start bleeding in the middle of the nite tonight…but I am pretty sure that if i go ahead and pack my bag for the hospital that THAT will guarantee that she will be ok until at least the morning!

So that’s just a quick update from here tonite – in case I end up missing for the next few days, that’s where i’ll be! (just kidding. I never go missing for that long!)

If you are local to here and would like to be a part of the Hope for Kendall fundraiser Trivia Night that we are having on February 10 – please go to this link and buy your tickets soon! we sold out of tickets last year and it is going to be even MORE fun and amazing this year! I would love to see you there! Let me know if you have any questions! I’ll have more info up about it soon – but I just want to continue to give those of you close enough to attend the chance to get your tickets!!

www.hopeforkendall.org

 

 

thanks so much for checking on us – and for your prayers for little miss stands with a fist.  I know she’s in a lot of pain, but won’t ever slow herself down – so your prayers for relief for her are so very appreciated!

 

terra.

(Image of Dances with Wolves is the property of Orion Pictures, original distributor of the film.)