Back to the NICU
Written by Anna
After just over 2 weeks of being home, we returned to Seattle Children’s Hospital in an unexpected way. Linus woke up one Saturday morning vomiting. At first it seemed like normal baby spit up, but then it started to gradually change in volume, color, and frequency until Linus was repeatedly vomiting large amounts of neon green bile everywhere. Zach and I promptly took him to our local ER, knowing that this was a sign of a bowel obstruction- which individuals who have had omphaloceles are more likely to experience.
We were quickly brought back to a private room in the ER where an IV was placed, labs drawn, and an abdominal x-ray completed while I explained Linus’s complex medical history to the doctor and nurses in the room. I immediately began to miss the children’s hospital as I watched nurses google Linus’s various medical conditions, stating that they had never heard of them before. I had to explain what an omphalocele was and why we were concerned about a bowel obstruction while repeatedly asking that somebody get in touch with a surgeon from Seattle Children’s who would be better acquainted with Linus’s case. After seeing my concern- and the green vomit all over the room- doctors began to make calls and examine the abdomen films. We were told that Linus did have a bowel obstruction, and before we knew it, a Life Flight helicopter landed on the hospital roof and took us back to Seattle.
Linus promptly received more imaging and was admitted to a surgical floor for observation. We were told that so far it actually didn’t look like Linus had a bowel obstruction (I have no idea what our hometown ER doctors thought they saw in his x-ray), but the doctors wanted us to stay while they examined his gut motility with a series of x-rays. Zach and I were happy that there was likely no obstruction and thankful to be back at the children’s hospital.
Nobody sleeps great in a hospital. Nurses continually come in and out of the room to check on their patient’s vitals, labs are drawn, lights are turned on and off. At some point that night, a nurse woke me stating that she was concerned about Linus’s breathing. He was breathing a bit faster and louder than usual and his retractions were deeper. He was sleeping comfortably and showed no signs of distress, so we agreed to leave him be and just keep an eye on it. The next morning, things got considerably worse. Linus was put on a high flow nasal cannula to move air better through his narrow cords, and I requested that the on-call doctor from the craniofacial team come to see him. Thankfully, the doctor on call was one who knew Linus well, and she agreed that Linus’s breathing was far from ideal. She voiced her concerns to the nervous nurses and surgeons observing Linus, and we were quickly brought back to the NICU so Linus could get a higher level of respiratory support.