Tummy Troubles

Sophie has had some tummy troubles the past few days. She had been complaining of a sore tummy which seemed to be getting progressively worse. I made a mental note to have her checked out by our doctor this week. However on Saturday night she woke up at around 1am complaining of a sore tummy. Not wanting to take chances (I always worry about appendicitis) I took her to the ER. She was checked out by the ER doctor who said she was likely constipated. She was given a glycerin suppository (which she did not like) and we were then released to go home. About an hour after we got home she woke up again, this time with diarrhea and vomiting. It was a big mess, and Vic and I spent the better part of 4:00-5:00am cleaning up. Sunday was uneventful. Sunday night I put her to bed and about 10:30pm she woke again complaining of a stomach ache. Thinking for sure something must be wrong; we went back to the ER. The same doctor was on. This time he took a blood sample, since in appendicitis the white blood cell count is usually high. He also ordered an x-ray of her stomach. He called me over to look at the x-ray.

What we saw was interesting: her intestine contained quite a bit of stool (poop) stuck in it. This was likely what was causing the stomach pain. It really was a bad case of constipation. Again, she was given a suppository which really didn’t do too much. They wanted to watch her so we slept on a gurney in the ER for about 2 hours. Finally at 2:30am, I woke up and asked the nurse if we could leave since it appeared that she wasn’t getting any worse. The doctor wanted us to come back at 7am to check her out before his shift was over. In the back of my mind, I was thinking, not a chance – I couldn’t imagine going back in a few hours. I was exhausted and I needed a bit of sleep so I could work today.

She has been drinking lots of water, eating fruit and drinking prune juice. So far, a bit of action has been happening – and her tummy doesn’t seem to be bothering her as much. We have an appointment with our family doctor tomorrow to have her checked out. We are both hoping for a quiet night with some sleep tonight. Needless to say, constipation is not a fun thing. She is going to start liking prune juice!