GI Issues - Hospital Admission

Well, we made it one whole year without Emmalin being admitted into the hospital (which is a great accomplishment). But this past Saturday (March 7th), Emmalin was admitted to the St Louis Children's Hospital (SLCH) because she was throwing up every 30 minutes. Technically Emmalin was taken by ambulance to our local ER (they have us take an ambulance because they - her doctors - don't want her waiting in the ER waiting room). This was Emmalin's second time to be take an ambulance from our house. The first time was last March when she got the Rhinovirus (which is a common cold but when Emmalin gets it her pulse of drops and she has to be given oxygen for a little bit). This was also the second time that Emmalin was transported from the ER to the St. Louis Children's Hospital. Emmalin is transported to the Children's hospital in St. Louis because this is where all of her 11 specialists are, her special team called the PACT team, and the CDKL5 specialist (that also happens to be Emmalin's epilepsy specialist / neurologist. Emmalin is also transported up there (instead of being admitted locally) because both Jarrad and myself want Emmalin to be where they already know her and where they specialize in kids (especially complicated kids).

Anyway, so Emmalin actually has 2 different things going on (at least that is what they think). The first issue of her puking every thirty minutes they think is some type of virus. The second thing is an issue that has been going on since about the middle of January. So far she has lost 6 pounds because she can't seem to tolerate / keep down her food (which is just a special type of milk). We saw Emmalin's GI doctor up here in St. Louis on February 19th and she decided to change Emmalin's food to something that was broke down a little more than the food she was normally on in hopes that it would help her stomach clear it quicker. So Emmalin went from Pediasure 1.5 to Peptamen 1.0 with Fiber. Emmalin did great with the switch and had stopped puking for about 2 weeks and then this past Friday night she started puking again. Normally she only pukes 1 time. It was because of the fact that by 1am she started puking every thirty minutes that we ended up calling the GI on call around 5:30am. Emmalin had never done anything like this before, and we were worried that the "normal" puking twice a week had turned into something worse.

Today is Monday morning (before any doctors have been in), and Emmalin should be going for an Upper GI today and then depending on the results of that, they may be doing another type of test tomorrow that will require a very light sedation.

When we got in here Saturday Emmalin would vomit every 30 minutes (even though there was nothing in her stomach) until they gave her some nausea medicine. Yesterday she did not vomit, but came VERY close to it several times. She had a couple times she had a burst of energy and she played with a balloon but got the most part she just slept. She FINALLY peed yesterday evening after holding it for about 28 hours.

Last night she continued to pee but seemed to be nauseas and stirred a lot. Plus her seizures were up a little, which is one of the main ways her body tells us when something isn't right.

So, we will see how today goes. Once she gets done with the upper GI then we will be able to start Pedialyte back up again. I will update again tomorrow.


Oh, one last thing I want to mention is that my family is amazing! My mom, sister, and brother in law Jon came with me and Jarrad to St Louis with us Saturday and stayed until yesterday. My dad (because they all had to go back for work - including Jarrad) is now staying a couple days so I have someone to help grab me food (or so I can go get me something), so I can go and do some laundry, and just so I can have some company. I am SO blessed to have them all!!

God is Good!!


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Location:St. Louis Children's Hospital

Above is Emmalin last night (Sunday night) here at SLCH. 

Below is Emmalin in the ambulance on the way to St. Louis.  Sorry the picture is a little blurry, but I couldn't keep my hand still long enough to take a picture without us hitting a bunch of bumps.

Below is Aunt Jessica (my sister) and Emmalin while we were at our local ER Saturday morning.