Justin's Mystery Sickness

It started off with constipation, which is not unusual for Justin.  We are usually able to clear it, but this one was a toughie.  Literally.  We could feel it in his abdomen.  Then one day he started throwing up everything he drank or ate, even water.  And of course it was Saturday.  It's always Saturday, unless it's Sunday.  After some calls to doctor and nurse friends, we headed to the ER.  It doesn't take much for Justin to lose weight so we know he can't go very long without eating or drinking.

We are getting good at going to the ER.  We know what supplies to bring to make the trip a little better for us all.  It took about 4 hours from arrival to discharge, but Justin was much better by the time we left.  The doctors and nurses are all so nice to us and we always try to ask a bunch of questions so that we can avoid a repeat trip for the same problem.  It doesn't always work, but we can try!

Here we are waiting for the doctor.  Justin got an x-ray right away to make sure that our diagnosis was correct.  (It was.)

We brought the DVD player and the boys loaded up on Veggie Tales movies.  I read my book club book.

Justin did not enjoy getting it all out, but three large diapers later he was much better.

And then it was sleep time.  He was so exhausted from all that effort that he fell asleep within about 2 minutes.  Poor guy!  The doctor said he could try to drink some water and he threw it up on me so we had to give him some anti-nausea medicine.  Twice.  He spit out the first attempt.

So that's how it began.  The doctor told us to give him miralax every day for at least the next month since he was very susceptible to a repeat because his colon was all stretched out.  So we started the regiment the next day with beautiful results.  Unfortunately, that was the day Travis decided to get sick and throw up a couple of times in the middle of the day.  By the next day Travis was fine and we thought Justin was fine too.  But then Justin threw up again.  So we thought Justin got Travis' bug.  Justin would do fine with some things but he threw up at least every other day for the next week.  I did laundry all the time and our new van had towels laid all over the floor, plus an extra stack just in case.  Justin and I both went through two to three outfits a day and by Friday something had to be done.  Justin had lost more than a pound in the past week and he doesn't have that much to lose!  By that time my thought was not stomach bug because he was acting fine the rest of the time, and then he would just start acting clingy and that was my cue something was coming.  And within a little while he was ready to eat again.  Weird.  I think it was because of the miralax.  It takes a few days to work, and Justin's system runs a little slower than most.  We had begun miralax before our ER trip so he already had some in him and I think it was just not the right fix for him.  The doctor has been pushing miralax on him every time I mention constipation and so when we went back she agreed that maybe it wasn't right for him.  "And you didn't even want to give it to him," she even said.  I felt slightly vindicated.  She agreed we should stop the miralax and see if that solved the problem.  Then we had to wait for the miralax to get out of his system.  That took another 10 days.  Ten days of Justin throwing up every other day and not wanting to eat much of anything.  His diapers were falling off because he lost so much weight.  His legs and arms just looked so thin.  He was pitiful, and he needed to be carried everywhere.  It was sad.  Then he started getting slowly better.  He would eat a little more every day.  He played more.  We loaded him up on pedialyte and prune juice and that has been great.  So I think Justin is going to start a prune juice regiment.  And the doctor agreed to a GI consult so we can solve our problems once and for all. 

Hopefully.