Back in the hospital for a few days

Unfortunately, we’re back in the hospital again, however hopefully not for long.  On Friday, we headed over to visit Gramma and Grumpa and all was well until about bedtime.  That’s when she started having quite bad stomach pains.  After several hours and an extra dose of steroids (since we were thinking it was a Crohn’s flare), she was finally able to fall asleep (or pass out from exhaustion, depending on how you look at it).  The next morning, she was back to her normal self — just as happy and energetic as could be.  But by mid-afternoon, we were back in the same place with quite a bit of cramping.  So, after talking with the GI doctor, we decided to head over to UNC to be admitted.

Admission went smoothly and we came up to our room right away.  Adela was lucky enough to have one of her favorite nurses Saturday afternoon — Ashley.  After a rough time trying to get an IV (two unsuccessful tries before the PICU team was called to put it in) and more pain, we all finally fell asleep at about 1:00 AM.  Sunday morning Adela felt OK and we went to get an abdominal ultrasound.  That afternoon, the doctor told us based on the various tests, it looks like she has a urinary tract infection and a mild case of pancreatitis.  She did have another rough night falling asleep (it took three tries with morphine to cut the pain enough that she could fall asleep).

For the infection she’s getting antibiotics.  That should clear things up in a few days.  For pancreatitis, the only treatment is to manage the pain, avoid eating or drinking anything, and staying hydrated with IV fluids.  The not eating part is upsetting her quite a bit since she’s obviously hungry and doesn’t understand why keeping her from eating will help her feel better.  The lab results from this morning show that the pancreatitis is already improving and we can tell that she’s not in quite as much pain today.  Assuming that she responds well to the medicine for the UTI, we’re hoping that we’ll be out in a few days — maybe even by Wednesday.