Our Good Friday

It always happens! Whenever I make a comment that we haven't been in hospital for a while with Noah, he ends up going in or getting sick. He has been irritable for a while now - on and off, but lately more on than off. Yesterday morning he woke up and started screaming straight away. The day before he was very irritable at school and I picked him up early. I have been going back to his paediatrician for weeks now saying something is going on with his bowels and tummy - like he had a tummy bug or something as he would settle with a feed, settle for a little while if he had a dirty nappy and was very windy.

Usually I can at least settle him a little bit, but by 10am yesterday he was screaming so much and seemed like he was in total pain that I almost took him straight to hospital. Instead I rang our GP and explained what was going on and the receptionist said to bring him straight down. Our Dr saw him straight away (the screaming helped to jump the queue!) and he said he couldn't see anything straight off, but after talking we thought that it (Noah being so miserable) had gone on long enough and it was time for a visit to hospital to sort him out. He rang the kids ward and let them know that we were on the way. We were lucky that we didn't have to go to A&E, but got to go through admissions instead. Those are the perks of being a (previous) frequent flyer on the kids ward :)

When we got there Noah was still screaming and so stiff. He would hardly sit in his wheelchair. They showed us to our room and I was so happy to see that they were giving us a private room - one that we used to spend a lot of visits in. It is huge and has a fridge, ensuite and view to the courtyard. Noah screamed the place down, while Harri was sooooo excited to see all the fun things to do! Harri hadn't been on the kids ward since he was about 6 months old so he couldn't remember it. It has changed a lot since we were last in and things had really improved with toys and activities for the kids to do. We still knew a lot of the nurses and lots of them popped in as they heard Noah's scream and recognised that it was him!

When we picked up Aaron and Jay from school, Harri was so excited to tell them that Noah was in hospital and that they had 'train tracks' there to play with! Jay is used to hospital and doesn't mind being there, although he does worry about Noah when he is in. Both the boys though have a great time playing on the ward.


About an hour after we got there Noah's paediatrician came in and asked me what was going on. I told him that things were just getting worse and something really wasn't right today as I couldn't stop him crying at all. All of the Drs then came in, as Thursdays in the 'grand round' day - we had about 5 Drs in the room at once all asking me and our Dr lots of questions to try to work out what it was. It reminded me of 'House' where they are all trying to figure it out. After a little while they decided to do a tummy xray, renal ultrasound, blood tests, urine tests and to book in some other tests including a bone scan and CT scan. Hours later Noah finally had a tummy xray and renal ultrasound. The Dr on the ward took us to look at the xray and said that even though he had been having bowel movements he was really blocked up higher up which was probably causing all the pain. I was so happy that they actually found something, but very surprised as I am usually 'onto' his bowels pretty good and feel like I know when he is having trouble emptying properly. Since having Noah I have learned that you can still go, but be constipated and he hadn't been like this for about 4 years so it really surprised me.

The Dr came into see me on her way home and said that this may be most of the problem, but probably not all of it as Noah has been quite irritable on and off for months, so although it will help to clean him out he may still have other things going on, and we will see how he is and decide on which tests to continue with once he was cleaned out.

During the night they ran a liquid through to flush his bowels out and we had a very long night of him being very uncomfortable as his bowels were very bloated. From 3.30am -5.30am I was up to him trying to help him to go and finally after about the fifth dirty nappy he started to settle down. Aaron and the boys came up early this morning and Harri came running in saying 'we couldn't find you Mum!', which I think he meant that it was strange that Noah and I weren't home.

For a month now we had planned on having Good Friday lunch at Mum and Dad's so I took Harri and Jay out, while Aaron stayed in hospital with Noah. Aaron was okay about it as he took up the portable DVD player and planned on having a DVD marathon with Noah. He was lucky as Noah was feeling a lot happier and was really settled all day long. The Drs and nurses were all trying to get us to leave Noah there and to both go out, but there is no way we would leave Noah on his 'own' for very long.

On the way to Mum and Dad's we stopped at Eden and Steph's block to see the progress on the house. It is amazing how fast it is going up! It was great to see Chrish who has been busy helping Eden as much as he can while he is down.

For lunch we had a yummy roast lamb (straight from Mum and Dad's paddock :) and baked vegies. It was such a nice day that we decided to sit out in the sun. Harri wasn't impressed as the sun was in his eyes, so he borrowed one of Mum's hats and sat with the hat over his eyes the whole lunch!

After lunch the kids went on an Easter Egg hunt. They had a great time finding the eggs, but Harri was very stressed as lots of them had melted in the sun!



The boys were very happy with their stash.


Grandma gave each of the kids an Easter present and the boys were so excited about their 'flying monkeys'.

Jay was dying for a ride on the tractor, so he was very excited when he got to help Uncle Eden put it away.

Yummy desserts (care of Dad and Steph) finished off a really nice day. It was quiet without Aaron and Noah, but all day I kept thinking I could hear Noah screaming! It has been going on for too long.

When we got back to the hospital Noah was very happy and settled and feeling a lot better. He was quite serious, and we helped him open up his present from Grandma which was a set of wrist bells. I put them on him and straight away he heard them rattle and he got very excited! He then kept moving his arm which was rattling them and started to get very hyped up! It was nice seeing him smile again. Aaron is staying in hospital with him tonight, so I can catch up on some sleep and hopefully tomorrow he will get to come home. Jay just said it was 'quiet and boring' without Noah home. We may not have to do any more tests, but just continue to change meds until we find the right dose and one to help his seizures that he is having at the moment.