Doing our best

For the next couple of months we kept Chase away from crowds as much as we could and I kept him hydrated the best I could.  The bloody stools he had had in the hospital were black water.  Now he was stooling bright red blood and continued to have profuse diarrhea.  He continued to nurse every 1.5 to 2 hours around the clock and the number of stools were the same, around 20 per day.  I talked to the PCP several times about the blood and we were being followed by a pediatric GI doctor.  Chase's routine blood work was never within the normal range and he continued to sleep all the time.  The GI doctor told us Chase was still dealing with post gastro enteropothy from the GI virus he was diagnosed with.  Without a nephrologist and a GI doctor who was unwilling to research PHA, we were just giving it all to God.  I placed ALL of my trust in God and I knew he was going to take care of Chase. 

Shortly after he turned 6 months old we attempted to feed him baby food carrots.  It was horrible.  He screamed in pain and the stools were laced with more blood than I had seen before.  We took pictures of the bloody diapers because it seemed that no one was listening to us.  By this time he was actually stooling blood clots.  We made a trip back to the GI doctor who said that Chase was now dealing with a word I have grown to shiver at when I hear it...allergies.  So just to sum it all up...we almost lost our baby to a GI virus that lasted for two weeks at its initial onset.  Then, he was suffering from post gastro enteropothy for 5 months because of this GI virus he had and now he has developed allergies...oh my the frustration level at this point was beyond bad.  Why would no one help us?  And why would no one take a closer look...because he was gaining weight.  Actually, the reason he was gaining weight was because I was with him all day keeping a log of his ins and outs and up with him all night nursing him every 2 hours around the clock.  I was also up changing his diaper all night just trying to keep the diarrhea off of him.  His little bottom was so raw and blistered from the diarrhea and he was so weak he could barely stay awake.  At 7 months old, Chase had just learned to roll over and was far from sitting up.  He vocalized very little and we could tell his development was not like Aubrianna's had been.  But he did smile...he smiled all the time.  He was the happiest little baby I have ever seen.  When he would smile, it would light up the room and I could just see the sweet spirit he had about him.