Ryan has been having episodes of vomiting on and off throughout the week with diarrhea. I know the stomach flu is going around at his school so maybe that’s what he got. Regardless, he has not been on top of his game this week and on Friday he was gagging quite a bit too. Then on Saturday he threw up all of his meds, formula and water after it sat in his stomach for over two and a half hours. At that point I knew we had to make a decision to hospitalized him. So here we are sitting in the hospital once again with gastroparesis. In Ryan’s usual fashion his tummy is not emptying so we are here at children getting IV fluids and allowing his stomach to rest. Because he is on seizure medications and is addicted to benzodiazepines, it is essential that we replace those medications and the only way to do that is through an IV. His abdominal x-ray was negative for an ileus and his blood work showed dehydration which I expected. Sidney came up with us yesterday and spent the night, and she has been a big help with Ryan. She is definitely seeing a new side of hospitalization as we were woken up numerous times throughout the night trying to get all of his meds in. But anyone who’s spent any time inpatient knows you don’t come here to sleep well.

I just wish he still had his G/J so we could bypass his stomach and put him back on the feeding pump to feed him directly into his small intestine. It was  sure nice to avoid hospitalizations because we could manage his stomach slowing at home. He may end up switching back to that while we are here. I guess we’ll see…

Brady, CeCe and their kids will be here Tuesday and I’m concerned we may still be here. We are hosting over twenty people at our house on Thursday, and part of the preparations hasn’t included juggling a child in the hospital. I am certain it will all work out; we’ve definitely learned to be flexible over the years!

I will keep you updated, but for now we are just hydrating Ryan and letting his tummy rest. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. They mean so much!