Mother's Intuition: Hazel's GERD Story Part 2

So, I know it's been a while since I wrote part 1, but let me say it's been a tough month.

Hazel was sick pretty much the entire month of October starting Wednesday the 6th. This was the day that started it all. At around 8pm, Hazel started vomiting and went completely limp, lifeless, cold, and pale. We rushed her to the ER and after a short wait they took some radiographs. After about three hours we finally see the results of her bloodwork and nasal swab. My poor babe was COVID and Adenovirus positive. After a while longer they tell us that she has an enlarged spleen and wanted to transfer us to Orlando because of this. So, in the next three hours or so that we waited for transport, they managed to stick my girl I think nine times at an attempt for an IV.

They never got one.

Finally, the EVAC showed up to take us to Orlando and we arrive there at either 2 or 3am. I can't remember now, but they didn't do anything there. The nurse we had was super rude to me and Jared, just not a good experience. We basically monitored Hazel to make sure that she was keeping down her bottles, and she was so we went home later that afternoon. Hazel recovered and was okay. We kept her inside due to having COVID, my husband and I (kind of) quarantined ourselves and we thought the vomiting episode was just due to the two viruses and she would get over it.

Well...

Six days go by and she vomited a ton again the next Tuesday night. The whole scenario was the same. She was limp, lifeless, cold and pale so again we rushed her to the ER. This time they gave her some Zofran, offered her some Pedialyte, she kept it down and we went home. We thought this was still just COVID because COVID is so easy to blame nowadays.

The next week, Wednesday night, same thing. After going to the ER the first two times and seeing what they did with the Pedialyte, we managed this vomiting episode at home. It was scary, but we got through it. Again, she was back to normal for the next 6 days.

I'm currently writing this post in the hospital due to the fourth vomiting episode that happened this past Wednesday. Hazel didn't wait until nighttime came around like she had been. This time it started at 11am and she vomited about six times throughout the day. We were able to get her in to see her GI doctor later that day where she vomited twice. He decided to switch her formula, again, to a completely broken down amino acid based formula so her body doesn't have to do a lot of digesting. At this point, we no longer could blame COVID or Adenovirus since it had been so long. Her GI doctor thought it could possibly be related to the GERD, but usually with GERD it's a constant spitting up/vomiting issue. Not once a week.

Later that night, Hazel vomited for the last time at around 8pm and I decided it was time to go back to the ER. This was after trying Pedialyte for the second time that day so I knew something else was going on. At the ER late Wednesday night, they were finally able to get an IV in her this time. They ran bloodwork and urinalysis. Both were fairly normal and only showed slight dehydration from the day of vomiting. COVID test was negative! YAY! The nurse practitioner spent some time on the phone with her GI doctor that she saw earlier that day and they decided to admit her. While we waited for our room, Hazel got another dose of Zofran. Once we got to our room, we got Hazel settled and we played the monitoring game again to make sure she was keeping down her bottles. She never vomited again which was good.

The first doctor we saw thought that the vomiting episodes could be associated with FPIES or Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome which is an extremely rare/severe food allergy to milk and/or soy or starting solids for the first time most commonly with rice cereal or oatmeal. Once I heard that and looked up the symptoms the little lightbulb over my head was flashing over and over.

I knew that had to be it. So, Thursday comes around and we stop putting rice cereal in her bottles. Her system won't completely flush out for 2-3 weeks so she may still have another vomiting episode. (I guess I'll find out tomorrow since today is Tuesday.)

So to make the rest of this story short...

Second doctor we saw begged the imaging team at this hospital to get a special radiograph study done here that we would've had to go to Orlando to have done. Thankfully they agreed to do it here and it was normal. The doctor was looking for twisting in the intestines that could be causing the vomiting. On Saturday morning he comes in and tells us he wants Hazel to stay three more days because she's now fallen into the 2nd percentile for weight and needed to see weight gain for three consecutive days.

After three long nights of going back to strict feeding every 3 hours (yes, even overnight) and a higher concentration of formula:water ratio for extra calories, she did it! We came in the hospital at 4.64kg and we're walking out at 4.86kg.

Basically the whole reasoning of this little story...The entire month of October she was sick and never had a chance to gain weight. She gained throughout one week and got up to 11 pounds which is 5.0kg then she lost that weight in the first three days of being at the hospital. It was shocking.

Since she's gained a good amount of weight we are now being discharged to go home...Tuesday, November 2nd.

We got here last Wednesday night...Y'all...I'm so ready to see the sunshine. Feel this beautiful fall weather. Hazel needs to get. out.

While she was here she had pretty bad GERD episodes with reflux and heartburn, but her meds were all out of whack the first couple days she was here since she was vomiting and we didn't have them at first. Thank God the nurses let my amazing mom run home to get them. She's also laying flat here a lot more than she would at home which can make reflux worse. I'm just so ready to get back to normal.

Sorry this is a long post, but I wanted to share what we've been going through. This was literally all month...and I'm over it. Jared is over it. Hazel is over it. We're all completely exhausted and my amazing husband still worked through all of this. I've officially decided to become a stay at home mom for the time being and my work is being extremely amazing about this whole ordeal. Monday was going to be my first day back, but that was just not happening.

Hazel has a GoFundMe if anyone is able to donate. The link is on the home page of my blog. These hospital stays are a little crippling financially. We super appreciate anyone who is able to give a little and share our donation <3