Friday, November 12, 2010

It Works!

Elias had his first poopy diaper yesterday just before noon, which is a good indication that everything is working. That is not to say that he is not still in quite a bit of discomfort. His stomach is visibly distended and hard as a rock from all the gas and green bile is flowing from his stomach into a vented trap. We were able to stop giving him Valium last evening and over night. So that is a positive.

A brief way of describing what is going on is to remember that this is the first time his colon is working "as it should." There is a bit of a shock to the system and it needs to relearn its role in terms of functionality. In the meantime the bowel is rejection the natural fluids our body creates in addition to the fluid that Elias is getting via IV. The body is forced to defend itself against the rejection of the bowels until it becomes accepting. This comes by way of retching and at times vomiting in order to evacuate what is in the stomach. The reason his bile is a dark green is simply from the liver enzymes and fluid that deposit in the stomach which a normal working bowel would re absorb and push out. So while it is a hardship for Elias at the moment every aspect of what he is experiencing is validated by this adjustment. They still are not in a hurry to begin testing his stomach and bowels yet. We fear they may wait until Monday for this, but hope not. We did remind them the length of time he has been without nutrition. The nutritionist for the vent unit came in to visit Elias and noticed the low concentration he was on and wondered why. Apparently, being off the Colorectal Surgical Unit also means being neglected for little details like having the dietician (an automatic for every patient as they are part of the unit team) follow us to ensure his needs are met. Hopefully this will be addressed and adjusted.

So more sitting and waiting and wondering what the plan is. Hopefully, Elias will feel better, be more engaging and make progress today. If there are any developments we will update you then. Thanks for all the prayers and support.
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1 comment:

  1. Yay! So happy to hear that it's starting to work! Hugs to all
    -Juli

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