What goes in must come out

So on Saturday morning Ellie started throwing up.  Just that continual not feeling well and throwing up over and over.  That just makes me mad after awhile because it seems to me only fair that if you actually throw up you should by all means be rewarded by some relief.  For crying out loud.  I mean really. 

We called one of the endocrinologists (Dr. Reim) and she suggested we go to the ER.  She was concerned that Ellie's shunts were no longer functioning (an "occlusion" if you must know the medical term).  Several weeks ago we started giving Ellie supplemental feedings when she pretty much stopped eating outside of an occasional chocolate chip cookie.  After starting the supplementation, her sodium began to rise.  So Dr. Reim was also concerned that Ellie's sodium might be at a dangerous level since it was high before the onslaught of throwing up (high sodium = dehydration).  We fully expected to get things checked out and then go home to adjust the amount of water we are giving her.  We did not feel it necessary to inform anyone of our plans for the day as we figured everything would be sorted out quickly.  Going to the ER hardly seems an event.  Even a hospital stay overnight hardly seems phone worthy at this point. 

If you read my blog about our last ER experience (and if you haven't you should it is highly entertaining, ok I won't tell you what to do but you might get a small chuckle out of it...) then you know that we left there feeling as if we had made up the whole brain tumor thing and maybe just maybe she had a urinary tract infection.  When I talked with Dr. Reim, I asked her if she could help us get set up in the ER and she agreed.  When Thom arrived the nurse immediately asked him what he wanted to see happen (now see, that is what I am talking about!)  An MRI was ordered along with blood work.  Her MRI looked really good, even better than the last time we checked.  AND her sodium had actually dropped rather than risen after throwing up all morning (isn't that just like our Ellie to do the opposite of what we would predict?) 

Ellie was checked into the hospital for the night because she had some unexplained tremors and jerking (not uncommon for someone with fluctuating sodium and tumor embedded in the basil ganglia).  An x-ray was done of her abdomen and it was discovered that she was just full up of waste material (aka "poop").  The theory is that she was so full that she could not process any more and so began throwing up. 

Now we have been working for 2 days to get her cleared and nothing is moving.  And I have discovered over many years of fighting with poop that it will not come out if you yell, "YOU HAVE TO POOP RIGHT NOW!!!"  Same idea goes for pee too if you must know (tried that one out yesterday actually).  You gotta relax and let it flow.  Basically we can't put anything else IN until something comes OUT.