While Ben and I were still in Florida Landon had what my mom thought was the stomach flu. He had woken up in the middle of the night sick. We kept him home from school even though he never really had a a fever. We come home on Tuesday and he looked a little pale but he seemed to be in a good mood. He would tell us his tummy hurt but he really did not have any other symptoms.
On Wednesday we let him go to school and when he came home I changed his diaper and was surprised to find black stool. I was not sure what the heck to do or where that could have come from. Of course the mom in me googled what black stool meant. It could have been from eating something with red dye, taking a lot of pepto, or an upper GI bleed. Since he had been sick for the past two days and we had pumped him with lots of red Pedalyte that was I thought. But I still feared the worse just like every mother does.
By Thursday he still said his tummy hurt, his appetite was weak, he still looked pale, and there was the black stool yet again. So I called the doctor's office, spoke to the nurse and she asked me to call Landon's GI doctor. So I did as I was told, put a call into the GI and waited a few hours. By 6:00 that evening I still had not heard back from the GI so I called our family doctor yet again. This time the nurse promised me that our doctor would call us back soon. By 8:00 that evening I spoke to our doctor and we went through the week and what I had seen. He could not be entirely sure what was happening but he did not think at the time it was needed to take Landon to the ER since he was eating a drinking but he wanted me to call him in the morning with an update. So on Friday Landon woke up and he was still pale, and his lips had no color. He would play for a bit and then get tired. He said his tummy still hurt but he would eat a little and drink some juice if I asked him to.
At 2:00 we headed to Landon's Social Group with a call put into the doctor about my concerns. On the way to Social Group I FINALLY heard back from the GI. The nurse asked me minimal questions and had me describe his stool. I told her it looked black but could be smeared to look like dark chocolate. She asked no further questions, told me it did not sound serious, but to call if he got worse. I hung up with her and thought to myself, well she was no help! While Landon was in social group our family doctor called me back and asked me to take Landon to the ER and have some blood work done. He felt that this was the next best step. So I made the necessary phone calls, and we headed to Edwards ER because that was the closest to Little Friends. Let me say that when I arrived I in no way was prepared for what would happen next.
The ER nurse came in, took my story, looked at the pictures of the stool I had on my phone (thank god for modern technology) and started an IV. While we waited for his blood work we saw the ER doctor and went through the details yet again. By now I had this entire week memorized! She left and within 5 minutes she came back and told us that Landon's blood count was low. He should be at a 12 and he is currently at a 7.5. We needed to pick either Rush or Lurie's because Landon would need to be transported their to receive an Upper GI Scope and a Blood Transfusion!!
Just like that I started to cry, I was so not prepared for any of that! She was sure that Landon was bleeding internally somewhere in the Upper GI since he had black stool. What she was amazed by was that all of his vitals were great even though he was losing blood. So Ben and I decided the best place for him was Lurie Children's in the city and they called the ambulance for transport.
Holy Cow! This poor kid has been in 2 ambulance rides in his short 4 years of life. He is also one of the toughest and bravest kids I know!! I was allowed to ride in the back of the ambulance with him and Edwards gave him a wonderful stuffed animal to hold while we headed down there.
Once we arrived to Lurie's Landon had more blood drawn and a team of GI doctor's came in to talk to us. Landon had lost a little more blood since leaving Edwards so it was determined that he would receive a blood transfusion during the evening. The next morning Landon would have an Upper GI Scope to find the cause of the bleeding. Luckily he took well to the blood transfusion and his counts were back up to a 10. By 9am he was off to the surgical unit and ready for his scope. He was put to sleep and off he went. The procedure took about an hour or so and once they had finished the doctor came out to talk to us. They had found a bleeding ulcer at the top of his small intestine and they clipped it to stop the bleeding. They also took a biopsy of the ulcer to see what the cause was and where it came from.
We ended up staying two nights at the hospital because of his blood transfusion. They wanted to make sure he recovered well. By Sunday morning he was up and running all over the hospital. He indeed was feeling better and wanted to go home. By Sunday he had informed us "My tummy feels better!"
We were lucky to have great family and friends to take care of Quinn through all of this! TTMarkie took Quinn to a friend's birthday party on Saturday and she of course had a blast. Our friend Kelly came to our house on Friday evening to take care of Quinn until Nana could come and get her. We also had some great visitors that came to see our little man!!
We were sent home with 2 subscriptions for anti-acid medicine for our little man and a follow up in 4 weeks. Landon had traces of high acid production in the ulcer. They are not sure what causes that but a few options could be from taking Ibuprofen on an empty stomach to many times, stress and anxiety, or his diet. We will learn more about what to do next in a week or so.
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