Sick Kids and Shunt Worries

The trio all came down with a cold about 2 weeks ago, literally same day started with coughing and runny nose. All three were having a bit of a tough time with congestion and we started them on albuterol. At the time their eating wasn't great but not terrible and they were getting thru it other than Mady was puking a few times with eating because of the congestion. About a week ago she started with diarrhea and I took her in last Saturday to the pediatricians because it had gotten so bad. The doctor determined that she was constipated and to stop giving her milk and go on a 48 hour juice diet. She of course loved this (my kids rarely get juice) and is doing much better, back to regular eating and pooping.

A few days ago Johnathan and Annabel started with the diarrhea and for the last few days Annabel has had a hard time eating solids, gagging and vomitting some but she was still a little congested just not with a runny nose or coughing but you could hear it. Both of them have been very happy lately and it hasn't really affected them until yesterday for Annabel. She hardly kept anything in yesterday but until nightime I honestly thought it was congestion/sensory issues. Last night after she had been sleeping awhile I heard her upstairs puking and it was a lot with quite a bit of the dark blood in it. When I got her downstairs she was moving her eyes left and right but we couldn't get her attention, she was pretty lethargic. So as any parent with a child who has a shunt knows, we took her right to the ER. When we arrived the docs were also very concerned about her shunt but thankfully the shunt series didn't show any changes from her past scans so that is a huge blessing! Her bloodwork was completely normal so after giving her a bolus to hydrate we were sent home. She slept in this morning and did eat a little cream of wheat and drank milk but ended up puking it again.

Because both her and Johnathan still had the diarrhea (no fevers for anyone thru any of it) I decided to take them in to peds to try to figure out how to help them get back on track. I had tried to give Johnathan juice as I had Mady but he wouldn't drink it, only wanted milk but then since he was drinking only milk and not eating much he would then puke because that always happen when he's only drinking, he just can't process the milk/carnation mixture alone. They are not constipated and the same doctor saw them that saw Mady and thinks they are all fighting a GI bug (what the ER docs chalked the vomitting up to)but that Mady got over it sooner. She said to try to get them to eat and drink anything they will, avoiding red sauces and juices. Yet today Annabel has been wanting to drink but she's puked up everything she has. She has been very tired all day and not active at all. I am still quite worried about her shunt, I think the ER docs were also still concerned upon discharge given that this is what happened last year when she was intermittently failing, it took the third trip to the ER for the CT to finally show her ventricles enlarged. We are praying it is not the shunt and simply a GI bug and that the vomitting was part of it and hopefully with a good nights rest she'll be doing better tomorrow and we can get her drinking and eating so that we don't have to take her in for hydration reasons. I am confident Johnathan will get over it ok, but please say an extra prayer for Annabel.

We did have Christmas with my cousin and her boyfriend as well as with my family this weekend, I will try to post pics soon!