So a guy walks into a drugstore grabs a box of suppositories, a tube of ‘personal lubricant’, a box of rubber gloves, and a diet Pepsi.
Yes, this could be the lead in to any number of good jokes but in fact, it was my shopping list this afternoon today at the pharmacy here in Maine. the drug store where my elementary school teacher probably shops, my friends parents and a whole host of folks that I grew up with.
Yes, I did have a story in case I ran into anyone who was interested in looking at my basket and thinking about my plans for a leisurely Sunday afternoon: It’s for my infant daughter.
Oh, wait. That is worse than what someone might think on their own.
But the truth is that it was for Ellie.
She has become a champion eater in the last few weeks and will eat baby food mixed with powdered rice cereal in a good quantity a couple of times a day. Rice cereal is magic stuff that slows food down as it goes through her bowel and will likely allow her to absorb more nutrients as the express train goes through her short section of small bowel.
We may have given her too much of a good thing over the past few days, though and she went more than 24 hours today without giving us a poop in her diaper. Coupled with this is the fact that her ostomy output has gone up during this time and Abby and I guessed that we may have a bit of a, um, ‘log jam’ in her colon that is stopping food from going down the pipe to her pooper and forcing it out the ostomy.
Losing food out the ostomy is a bad thing in excess and we wanted the girl to poop for us.
Enter the glycerin suppositories, the K-Y, and the gloves.
We have had good luck with this in the past to get things moving again. Simply lube up the sliver on the tip of your finger and pop it in. We learned this while Ellie was at Children’s and also learned the advanced technique to insert the glycerin into her bottom in the hospital and avoid a glycerin projectile (hold the cheeks together for 30 seconds).
Abby did the honors tonight and other than Ellie’s look of pure surprise we had good luck and Ellie gave us a nice poop just before she passed out tonight.
Hopefully that will open the flood gates and get the train rolling to the final station again without losing it at the ostomy.
4 comments:
Since no one has said this yet today, the princess is absolutely spectacular. It was so nice to see her so soon after our Cape Cod visit. Here are a few highlights from this weekend: Ellie in her high chair during dinner Saturday, scarfing down peas or plums or whatever the heck that was; Ellie fresh from her "bath" with the freshest smelling curls; Ellie sizing up her cousin Audrey; and sitting outside her bedroom Saturday afternoon while she resisted taking a nap by breaking into song. She's delightful, and you guys aren't bad, either.
Love,
Aunt Beth
Glad to hear that you had a great weekend with your family. You might want to delete this post before Ellie gets to High School. :-)
Judy
Hi Brogans! Just want to let you know that we were up visiting the 8 West nurses and Lakeisha(8 west is now on 10 East) as Eithene is inpateint right now, and they were able to confirm that the unit is becoming more and more short-gut oriented. Funny huh? I told them it was all your fault ;) You guys are such great advertisers- and none better than beautiful healthy Ellie. Every short-gut family far and wide is headed to Boston these days. Good job you guys- I think you can say you have made a difference in the world :)
Jessica :)
www.caringbridge.org/visit/eithenerosehilliard
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