Kintropy In Action

Today was my first day back to work after a week's vacation.  Granted, it was intended to be a take-care-of-the-kids medical vacation, but I still got a week off, and today was the jump back into work day.

After starting to catch up on email and attending a meeting, I came home for lunch.  I only work about five minutes from our house:  a nice plus.  I get to eat lunch with Janette and the kids.  While I was getting my lunch ready, Janette pulled Hannah's g-tube residuals.  We do this to make sure Hannah is not retaining the last feed prior to starting the next.  The syringe filled up with a near-black liquid:  20 or more ccs of it.

"Robert, remember how I said I didn't need you to stay home today?"

"Yeah..."

"Look."

Janette showed me the g-tube.  Given that Hannah is on an antibiotic, ibruprofin, tylenol, etc., we weren't sure if there was blood in there.  We were only sure we hadn't seen anything quite like this yet.  Hannah was acting normal, but the fluid was beyond odd.

Well, we made it to the doctor's office with a bottle of near-black fluid for testing.  After a check with Hannah's pediatrican and some testing of the fluid (which was positive for blood), we headed to our next destination:  the local children's hospital.

So Hannah and Janette are doing an overnight tonight at the hospital.  So far, blood tests are normal.  The doctors are trying to reduce any acidity in her stomach and work through the symptoms.  Gabriel and I are spending the night here at home.

Sigh.  So I am hoping that my last several posts don't read like complaints.  They're not intended to be that.  To be honest, this is kind of what life with my family is like:  ups-and-downs (and many of them medically related).  Though next time, maybe we can hold the lunch surprise.

-- Dad