when kids suffer. I know where you 're coming from Warren.
My son was in the hospital for 2mos when he was 3.5yrs old and doctors didn't know what he had. It started out with a stomach virus because that was going around at the time, but he seemed he couldn't recover from it.. Very frustrating - he had 2 exploratory operations and they couldn't find anything so they took out his apendix while they were in there! He went from 40lbs down to 28lbs - all bones.. Couldn't eat anything - he vomited it everything so they were feeding him with an IV line.. but that was only 500 calories/day. He need over 1,000 to maintain his body weight.. It was very hard to see him like that day after day and the doctors scratching their heads and passing him onto another group, like the gastroenterologists would pass him on to surgery, surgery would pass him on to Infectious diseases (they had him isolated for a while which is good), then back to gastroenterology. Noone really wanted the responsibility even though they all had daily meetings about his condition. The funny thing is, a 2nd year resident had told me exactly what he had, but the big-shot doctors did not listen to him and I think he was afraid to speak up. He was just the resident on duty the day we brought him in to the hospital.
You know how he recovered? The night before my mom had called a priest to say a prayer to help him recover and also guide the doctors to discover what he had. The next morning he was going for another test, Upper GI test, where they make you drink barium, but in his case they put a hose in his nose all the way to his stomach and pumped it in that way.. I couldn't stand that. They did that to him a couple of times before and he was gaging and couldn't talk.. Anway they then follow the illuminating barium carefully as it goes down your digestive tract in the X-ray machine. This time it was a different radiologist on duty and she found a blockage which is caused by a large artery, the mesoenteric artery, which had collapsed on the small intestine right below the stomach, closing up the intestine. This also causes abdominal pains and cramps which my son had for 2mos! The artery was not 8-10mm away from the small intestine like in most people, but only 2mm away! It's called SMA Syndrome or Super-mesoenteric-Artery Syndrome and it is very rare. Only 1 in a MILLION people have it and it was first recognized officially in the medical books in 1981! The only solution to prevent the symptoms of vomiting, not eating, and losing more weight, is to eat a lot and maintain a healthy weight so that the fat on the small intestine prevents the artery from pushing down on it and closing it up, blocking the passage for the food.. People that have SMA cannot afford to stay think, they must maintain average or above weight or it will occur again and then they 'll need a feeding tube in the side of their stomach below the blockage until the gain the weight again and can start eating by themselves - orally.
Well my son started eating and keeping everything down minutes after the Upper GI test! He asked for food which he hadn't done for weeks! It looked like the heavy barium had pushed the artery slightly away that enabled him to eat. I did not stop feeding him for 4hrs straight until he gained another 3lbs right in front of our eyes. The poor child had not eaten in almost 2mos and was extremely hungry! Docs said take it slow, feed him a little, I didn't listen to them and kept giving him cupcakes and anything high in calories.. I fed him through the night, Midnight, 3am, 6am, etc. The next day we gave him like 6-7 meals and he kept eating it up until his weight was up another 2-3lbs! I had managed to make him gain 5lbs in <48hrs. The next day after he gained another 1lb and weight was back up in the mid-30's they released him.
About 2.5 days after the priest came to see him and blessed the room with holy water and all that. Coincidence? you be the judge. Makes you appreciate your children a lot more. Unfortunately my son was born with a chromosome 16 disorder and is slow but it could have been a lot worse. He may not do everything normal children do but he talks, is happy, playful, and so far healthy with no need for any handicap devices, just the IQ and demeanor of a 4.5-5yr old (they just tested him), even though he 's 13. He 's a lot of work but we never regreted having him in our lives. We enjoy his innocence which most kids lose when they hit 13, and he may never lose it according to all the doctors, but it's ok with us and we accept the fact that he may live in a group home with supervision the rest of his life after we are unable to care for him or when we are gone.
Hey I was thinking, maybe I shot too many pellets when I was younger and had mild lead poisoning which led to the birth defect of my son? Dang airguns! I 'm going to break them all in half.. NOT!
I eat lead for breakfast!!