Caleb in the Hospital

It was really a strange feeling to drive away from the hospital at 6 PM tonight, leaving Caleb there for his first night in the hospital. Every other time we've had hospital stays, either Dave or I have spent the night there. But Caleb's 15 now and didn't really need that anymore, even though he's not feeling great.

What a day it's been...every step of the way taken care of by the Lord.

With Caleb's stomach problems only getting worse, we went in to the hospital today to see if we could get started on finding out what's going on. Not only did we get started, but he's in ICU tonight getting great care.

The doctors and nurses we encountered along the way today were wonderful...competent, caring, kind, professional - everything you'd hope for in medical personnel. The main doctor had us in her office for over an hour, as if we were the only people she needed to care for today...and we know that's not true because she told us that the children's ward is completely full right now!

Things didn't really start moving until after Caleb had an ultrasound. It took a long time, of which Dave and I were out in the waiting room wondering what was going on...that's another change in how things are working these days! We no longer go in with Caleb for the tests!

Anyway...the technician called in another doctor to consult, and then went upstairs to talk with the head doctor we'd been talking with. The reason for this was that he'd found something that wasn't right, and in fact, was serious enough to get the ball rolling.

After that it was a flurry of activity and before we knew it, Caleb had his hospital pajamas on and was in a bed in ICU.

Tomorrow they'll start with some tests, leading up to a CT scan and endoscopy on Monday. Hopefully after that we'll have a better idea of what's going on. The suspicion is some sort of blockage - could be scar tissue from his last surgery, chronic infection or something completely different.

In any case, my heart is totally at rest and peace tonight...odd! But we have so asked the Lord to make the way clear for getting Caleb help, that I only see His hand in this and nothing else. I feel confident in the way he lead us, and the place and people he lead us to. Now we'll just see what's next...but I believe the Lord for good in whatever it is.

More when we know something...

April 24, 2008 - If, by chance, you are reading this "after the fact" I wanted to note a few things. One is that they did the CT scan and didn't find anything except that the intestines did telescope during the actual CT which is rare. They noted a few other unusual things, but nothing conclusive. After several weeks of working through their system, they came to a dead end saying they really didn't have the expertise to deal with this situation. This lead to a trip to the States where we are working with a doctor at Doernbecher Children's Hospital, still seeking the answers to the pain that is ever increasing in Caleb's intestines.