Strange things are happening around here....

So Noel had some scary things happen to her within the last month and a half or so. At the very end of January on the last Saturday of the month Noel's stomach became very distended and very hard. Morgan took her to the ER where they did an xray and a cat scan which showed that she had a bowel obstruction. She was admitted and stayed in the hospital for a couple nights. It was quite the scary experience. My brother Mikey happened to be in town when all of this happened and watched Samuel a few times so I could go be with Noel and Morgan. Chris and Kareena also helped watch Samuel! (Thank you sooooo much Mikey and Chris and Kareena!! Mikey, you were so inspired to be here that weekend!) The first night and the following day, they gave Noel many of what they call soapsuds enemas (which we later learned from her GI specialist that they are very dangerous and shouldn't be done anymore). Ultimately, they helped a little bit but on Sunday they started her on a feeding tube and pumped her with "go lightly" which is pretty much liquid miralax. Eventually they were pumping her with 12 oz/hr of this stuff. After about 12 hours of being on the "go lightly" an xray showed that the obstruction was no longer there and on Monday she was discharged.

A couple weeks later exactly on a Saturday Morgan took her to the ER again because her stomach was once again distended and hard (but not nearly as hard as the first time). My brother Mikey just happened to be here that weekend again and helped out a lot again so I could go visit Noel. My mom drove out Sunday morning from CA once we knew that Noel would be there at least for another day. On Saturday, in the ER, after an xray they said she had a partial obstruction but later stated it was not a partial obstruction but that her bowels weren't functioning properly. This time they didn't do any enemas or feeding tube but used suppositories and a stimulant laxative. The GI specialist was supposed to come and see her at the hospital on Monday but didn't show up til Tuesday evening. He thought all of this to be the result of withholding stools and/or a virus that prevented her intestines from contracting regularly.

These are pictures from the second hospital visit.

At her first hospital visit I was only able to come visit once each day because I needed to take care of Samuel. Morgan was there the majority of the time and stayed each night with her. But once Noel was admitted the second time to the hospital my mom took care of Samuel during the days while I went to relieve Morgan at the hospital so he could go to school. Morgan had the night shift and I had the day shift.

There were a couple of times where Morgan and I were the with Noel at the same time and during one of the times a nurse came in a brought Morgan and I some apple juice. Morgan and I toasted our glasses and Noel wanted to participate and so seriously, for 5 minutes we all kept hitting our cups together. Noel got a kick out of it and was laughing. It was so cute. She kept busy drawing and playing with stickers. We would walk the halls a couple times a day. She also watched a lot of movies.
Thanks again Mikey for all of your help. Some pictures of us with my momma.


My mom stayed an entire week to help out. It was so nice to have her here and to be able to relax a little during a crazy time. THANKS SO MUCH MOM FOR EVERYTHING! You're an amazing mother!

Since Noel's first hosptial visit her tummy becomes distended every day but not hard. She has since seen the GI specialist again and he said that her white blood cell count was a little elevated so he seems to think that these hospital visits were in result of some kind of infection that attacked her bowels. He also still thinks she originally had a withholding problem before all of this happened. Which makes sense because before all of this happened her constipation issue was getting more serious.

We are so grateful this is all over and that we are figuring things out with the GI Specialist. We are so grateful for all the help and prayers we received.