Intussusception

Danny started having stomach cramps last Wednesday night. He's recently potty trained, so we assumed it was constipation. On Saturday, after a few consultations with his doctor on the phone (I love America!), he "went". We thought all was fine until the cramping started again and continued to get worse. By 7 am the next morning, neither of us had gotten much sleep. I took him to the ER while Alan stayed home with Jason. Our local ER referred us to the regional children's hospital where we were transported by ambulance. Alan and my parents had made it to the hospital right as the ambulance arrived to pick us up. A very concerned Jason was able to see Danny before we put him in the ambulance.

Shortly after we arrived at Children's Medical Center, they suspected he had intussusception. The intestine folds in on itself kind of like a telescope. He was immediately taken in for a sonogram. (During the sonogram, Danny decided that he had had just enough of the hospital. He pulled the towels off his shirt, turned to me and emphatically said, "I want to go home.") The sonogram confirmed the diagnosis and they took us straight to the fluoroscopy room where he had an air enema. Oh, yes. Crazy! I had never heard of any of this before Sunday. But I have to say, Danny's pain stopped immediately. He was exhausted from not sleeping well for 4 days, but started getting better rapidly. On Monday, they let us leave the hospital after he had started eating again. By Monday afternoon, he was running around my parent's house pushing a cart while we were picking Jason up.

What we've learned: they have no idea what causes it. The majority of people to get it are 18 months to 3 years of age. It ususally goes away and never comes back. Nurses and doctors love to wake you up at 5:10 am to "see how it's going."