Miller Family Update: February 2020

What a freaking week!!!! Emmalee and I are at the hospital. She has been pretty sick off and on for about 8 days now. Fever, vomiting, lethargy, pain, dehydration, constipation, you name it! She took a turn for the worse yesterday and has been unable to keep down ANYTHING. She started puking green so here we are...She had an ultrasound, X-ray has been getting IV fluids, IV meds to help with nausea and we are scheduled for a procedure sometime today to correct and or fix her Intususpeption. (Definition: A condition in which part of the intestine telescopes into itself. Intussusception is a medical emergency involving obstruction of the intestine. It can be fatal if not treated. It occurs most often in children.) If the procedure doesn’t work, they will have to go in and remove some of her intestines that are damaged. They saw on the scans some areas that were concerning. Without proper blood flow to those areas of the intestines, the intestines can become necrotic and the tissues can begin to break down and die. Please keep her in your prayers. Hoping for a quick and easy fix.

ultrasound

Barium Enema with xrays

Poor baby girl had a procedure done where they try and do an enema and insert contrast dye and water through her intestines and try to get it to push or pop out. They tried several times and took lots of xrays. The procedure was unsuccessful. Emmalee is scheduled for emergency surgery at 12:30. We will be here overnight for sure.

Off to Emergency Surgery

Post Surgery

Emmalee is out of surgery. They opened her up and found that she had a Meckel's diverticulum: (Definition: An outpouching or bulge in the lower part of the small intestine. The bulge is congenital (present at birth) and is a leftover of the umbilical cord.) they removed that and a small piece of her intestines. They also removed her appendix. She will be on iv antibiotics for a few days and will not be permitted to eat or drink until her intestines are showing signs of healing. The length of our stay will depend on how the next 24 hours go. They are thinking we will be here until Friday. This all happened so quickly! Our poor little munchkin:(

On the outside she is doing well. She is active, alert, wants to play, babbling a bit more, reaching for things, scooting and army crawling, planking and getting on hands and knees. She is off the morphine. She is on iv fluids and toradol through her iv for pain as well. She also is receiving Tylenol suppositories round the clock. On the inside is another story. We are still seeing bloody show in the diaper (normal for this type of surgery). They are letting her intestines heal a bit more before she is allowed liquids. 1.) She must eat, 2.) keep down what she eats, 3.) her body must make and form poop, 4.) her intestines must push that poop along and out of her body before we are able to leave. She is doing well though. Just agitated that I am not feeding her. Poor bug:( Please keep her in your prayers. She is an unhappy and exhausted little munchkin tonight:( We were able to FaceTime some family for distractions but she is just so sad and hungry. Hoping for a restful night. Love you all and I apologize if I can’t respond to everyone’s messages, texts or phone calls, I’m trying hard to keep everyone updated and being the ultimate distraction and comforter. We appreciate you all so very much!

We slept from 10-12, 1-5, 6:30-10! Feeling good. Still no food till tomorrow:( She passes a few blood clots and which is totally normal. Means her bowels are moving! They took her off morphine and now will be doing toradol through her iv and continue with the Tylenol suppository. We are just trying to keep her comfortable. Her tummy is really sore and she is still dehydrated so they are upping her fluids.

Emmalee was cleared by the night doctor for clear liquids!!!! 12 hours ahead of schedule!! What a freaking rockstar! This girl amazes me with her resilience and strength. Her smile says it all!!! We are taking it slow. An ounce of pedialyte at a time. So grateful for modern medicine and incredibly insightful, diligent and kind health professionals where without them, our baby girl would not be with us today! Blessed beyond words!

Anderson and Caralynn were permitted to come visit for a bit. I ordered milkshakes and cookies and we just soaked up all we could get and just spent time together as a family. It was such a great visit! Emmalee smiled and laughed at her two favorite kiddos! She is tolerating sips of pedialyte and doing well:) We are hoping to switch over to breastmilk sometime tomorrow. Keep praying everyone, but not just for us, pray for all who need healing. There are seriously ill children on this floor and their cries are heartbreaking. I know the lord hears their cries and answers prayers. Miracles are happening all around. So blessed!

She had a great night! She slept from 11 last night to 7 this morning. She slept through all vital checks and medications. She kept down the pedialyte last night. Unfortunately she puked up the pedialyte this morning (she was gulping and got an air bubble) there’s a lot of gas in her belly so we are slowly working through that. but it’s ok. We are going to keep working on going in the right direction in all areas. We will see the surgeon this morning sometime.

Emmalee and mama just cuddling away while she snoozes and completely oblivious to her blown IV line. Catheter out and dripping all over the bed and mama. But yay, we are IV free for a bit and dancing around and enjoying hugs and snuggles out of the crib!!!

Good morning and happy Thursday! They decided to see how she would do without the iv overnight. No iv meant no more toradol for pain through her iv, no more electrolytes and fluids. She would require several bottle feedings of pedialyte throughout the night. She did pretty well but was very restless. She handled her feeds well, it was just hard to tell if she was in pain or just exhausted. I ended up pulling her onto the “bench” with me and we slept from 3:30-8am. She just had her first 2 ounces of breastmilk and we got more pain meds on board.

Emmalee is doing fantastically well and is so strong and resilient and is coming through this ordeal with flying colors. She is doing so well l, in fact, that there is talk of letting us go home today. As long as she keeps down her feeds and has an adequate amount of output and her pain is managed with oral meds, we will be able to continue care at home. The outpouring of love and support we feel is indescribable and our hearts are forever changed.

Emmalee is keeping down 3-4 ounces of breastmilk at a time!!! She still gets pretty gassy and uncomfortable at times but she is seriously doing amazing!!!! We are not officially discharged but we are dressed and ready for when the Doctor gives the go ahead. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 he gets out of surgery soon and gives our awesome nurses discharge orders. We will see when that will be. I cannot say enough amazing things about the emergency room, Gerry Frank Center, pediatric unit and mother/baby center here at Providence St. Vincent Hospital. Everyone has been incredibly supportive and loving! Such a blessing and eternally grateful for all they have done and continue to do for our family and so many other families in our community.

Heading home for uninterrupted sleep in our own beds! Busting out 16 hours earlier than expected! Feeling so blessed and grateful to all you prayer warriors!!!