 
Hutch getting his Upper GI with Lower Bowel follow through. This was day he was diagnosed with Malroation. These pictures were taken at the beginning of the test and before we new anything was wrong.
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Pre-op for surgery. He had just gotten his "goofy juice" August 23, 3012  |
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| Here we are seeing the pedi Gastro |
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| In waiting room for 2nd opinion |
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| His sweet friend, Eden came to see him on day 2 in hospital |
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| day after surgery his good buddy Rhett came to see him. |
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| He got all kinds of toys while he was in the hospital |
First time getting to eat in 3 days...clear liquids. yummy!
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| Prayer Shawl brought to Hutch by IBC ministry team. |
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| starting to feel like playing!!! His mind was ready to leave the hospital but his body wasn't quite ready. |
Well, this post is a hard one to start off. I don't know if I have every mentioned on the blog before (i should have since it is their "baby book"), but Hutch has suffered from tummy issues since birth. When he was born they put him on Soy formula because he was not tolerating the milk based formula...i.e. throwing up. 2nd year of life we tried to transition him to whole milk an we were convinced he had a milk allergy. It seems we could always trace his vomiting back to something that had milk in it. The problem was he didn't throw up every time he had whole milk. The vomiting would get better for a while and then get worse again. Age 3 we had him allergy tested. Everything came back normal. Over the years somebody always had the stomach bug too and we could trace his throwing up back to that person. Just a lot of unanswered questions and us trying to figure out what was wrong with him verses nothing wrong with him??. Hutch had learned over the years when he was going to throw up and we would run to the bathroom. He could "call" it. I would look over at him when we were out to eat and say "Hutch are you ok? Your not eating?" He would tell me "My tummy hurting, I'm about to throw up" or "If I eat anymore I am going to throw up." Sometimes, his stomachpain would interfere with his playing and just being a kid. Overall, he was a more irritable child and sometimes difficult to engage in activities (little did we know how much of this was contributed to his stomach condition). Working in the NICU at children's we come across a congenital condition known as "
Malroation"- many times OTs are the first to notice it because a lot of times we are the first to feed the babies. I had always had this rare and often hard to diagnosis condition in the back of my mind for the reason Hutch had tummy pains and throwing up....but often dismissed the idea because of the fact I have seen too many rare strange things working at the hospital etc. Well, fast forward a little. The mother intuition told me this problem was not getting any better.... he must have something else wrong with me. I called my Dr and spoke with the nurse. I told her I felt like Hutch had some type of intestinal blockage or congenital malformation and that I wanted and upper GI with lower bowel follow through. I figured she might think I was crazy... She called me back shortly and told me our pediatrician agreed to it and they scheduled the appt. I was soooo relieved. I thought finally we are going to get some answers. The next week we went for the long awaited test.....the radiologist would take some x-rays and then kept asking us to stay and take more pics...then go and drink some more barium and then come back and take more pics. We did this like 5 times. We were there all day it seemed. I never thought anything was wrong, just that it was part of the test. Finally, on our last set of pics he told me "well, I've kept y'all here so long because I needed to really get some good pictures of Hutch's insides. You see everything is not where it's supposed to be, his stomach is over here when it should be here, etc. He has something called
"malroation"". I. ALMOST. Passed.Out. I could not believe my ears. I knew immediately he would need surgery...open abdomen surgery. We left the hospital and before I was to my car our Pediatrician calls me. He said, "well, you called it!" I honestly couldn't believe it. He said he always listens to a mothers intuition. I'm so so so thankful for our doctor that listened to me and followed through with my request. We went to surgery clinic a week later and he tell us the pros and cons of surgery....tuff decision. He told us to decide. We were in no place to make that decision...we wanted him to tell us what to do. He made it sound like either choice could not be the best choice. We got a second option by a pedi Gastrologist. She told us "hands down you have to have the surgery" Two days later we were having it done. He had a
Ladd's procedure and incidental appendectomy. He stayed a total of 5 days 4 nights in the hospital. I stayed with him all the nights except one in which his daddy stayed with him. He is a new child. So much happier and most importantly PAIN FREE!!!! Praise the LORD!!!!
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| Hutch and his daddy before surgery....such a hard time. |
