Ralph

So the first day home was pretty much gravy except that we were tired. I had updated Thursday that things were going well, and they were, until Thursday night/early Friday morning. We went to my nephew's football game and Anna was all over the place. She was up and down the bleachers. Apparently she didn't get the message that she had surgery 2 days prior. We got home and put the kids to bed and got Anna all hooked up to her feeding pump. Things were quiet (except for Kenneth's snoring) until about 4:30am when I was greeted with a showering of Anna puke. I'm talking a whole night's worth of tube feeds plus a bunch of other undigested food that had apparently been hanging out in her stomach for awhile. It was vile and it repeated 2 more times, each one right after I would finish cleaning her up from the previous time. Kenneth was up doing laundry like a madman trying to keep up with the Ralph rate. Although she never really had any fever to speak of we hoped it was a virus and not that she was not tolerating her feeds. She laid around a lot Friday so we just knew it was viral. Friday night we just ran Pedialyte through her tube for half the night and she did fine. We thought the "virus" was gone. Just to be on the safe side we restarted her feeds last night at 1/2 the prescribed rate. They ran at 15ml/hr until about 6am when it happened again...the puke monster reared its ugly head. This time it was a bit less and luckily we were sleeping in the recliner under a blanket so the clean up was much easier and thank goodness because Kenneth went back on duty today. So, it appears the virus was no virus at all. I think tonight I will skip feeds all together because I have to work tomorrow and will leave early and do not want Christy to have to deal with puke. I plan to call Dr. O's office first thing tomorrow and see what we need to do. She probably needs something to "jump start" her gut for a little while. I knew there would be bumps along the way and this is just one of them. I am exhausted beyond what words can even express but still feel we have done the right thing. I know this will resolve and she will do fine. This seems to be a pretty common thing in newly tube fed kids. I am giving boluses of Pedialyte to prevent dehydration and she is doing OK with that so I consider that good news. I know God's plan for us is perfect and that all of this has a purpose.