The doctor visit that kept on going

Today, Brayden was scheduled to see his GI doctor. I have been concerned that his G-J tube was loose and this can lead to some problems. We left the house at 6:30 a.m. for a 7:45 a.m. appointment at Children's (Fairfax office).

Brayden saw the GI doctor about his tube and things looked good. The doctor continued to ask about Brayden's health. I told him about Brayden's problems with the coughing, vomiting and diarrhea for the past week. It has been pretty bad the past 24-36 hours. The doctor listened to his chest and drilled us with questions about Brayden's output (urine and stool). He was not pleased with how little Brayden has urinated and how much he has had diarrhea.

The GI doctor then ordered a chest x-ray, blood work, urine and stool sample.

Oh boy, here we go. A simple check on the tube turned in to quite an adventure.

The chest x-ray was pretty simple. Brayden did not like being held down.

Then came time for the urine sample. They will not use a catheter at Childrens (I have no idea why) so we have to do the little urine bag (that is not fun). As we were putting on the urine bag, he had diarrhea all over the table. It was not pleasant. So then we scooped up that for his stool sample.

The bag was on so we wait for him to urinate.

Meanwhile Brayden has blood drawn, which thankfully was pretty smooth. In the past he has proven to be a very difficult stick.

Then we are back in the waiting area. Waiting for him to urinate. An hour goes by...nothing. Another hour goes by...nothing. I ask if we can leave; keep a urine bag on him and start heading home but stop at the pediatrician to try again for a urine sample. The doctor says we can go.

We leave Fairfax and head for the pediatrician. Of course in the middle of a huge thunderstorm with rain so hard you could barely see or hear anything.

The nurse does a cath (instead of that dreadful bag) and nothing. Barely a drip. Hmmm, at this point we had been running his feeding for several hours, however he had 4 diarrhea episodes. They do more blood work because they might be able to get it processed faster than Childrens. The pediatrician listens to his chest and thinks there might be a little something. They went ahead and gave him a shot of an antibiotic for pneumonia.

At this point, we wait to find out the results from all of the work ups. Brayden may be admitted to the hospital for the weekend to get more fluids in him by IV, give his gut a rest and a chance to heal.

We are finally home at 4:45 p.m.

I just thought we were getting his tube checked instead he may be admitted?!