Thursday afternoon Josh had blood in his stool which is a warning sign of a possible infection. This is not taken lightly so immediately he was given an x-ray and all additives were taken out of his milk. The x-ray did not show signs of an infection but also did not look normal. That evening his nurse thought he was acting a little strange and he still had some blood in his stools. The doctor decided to make him NPO (nothing per mouth) which means that all of his feeds were stopped and he was given IV fluids only. This is done to rest the digestive tract. At the same time he had labs sent out to test for inflammation and infection.
On Friday he had a repeat x-ray and again things looked unusual but there was no visible sign of infection. He was still acting normal (just hungry after having no food in his stomach) and his labs came back normal. His x-ray showed dilation in his intestines and the radiologist was concerned so he was put on antibiotics.
Saturday morning he had one more x-ray and although his intestines were still slightly dilated it looked better than the day before. The doctor decided to start him back on feeds of plain milk and to slowly build him back up to full feeds. He is still being monitored closely but he acts like he feels fine. Today he should get his IV out (which is in his head) and be back on full feeds. If he shows any signs of distress or there is more blood in his stools he will go back onto NPO status with just an IV.
Josh also continues to have reflux problems which in turn causes him to have apnea and bradycardia episodes. Right now these episodes are bad but not severe enough to warrant giving him medicine for reflux. The hope is that as he gets older and more mature these problems will decrease.
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| Josh with a funny IV "hat" |
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