The Clinic

I called into the clinic this morning again to explain Maggie's symptoms of diarrhea and difficulty breathing. I think finally I got through to them when I shared over 13+ stools and she was breathing very fast. I would compare Maggie's breathing to a person who had just run a race. Thankfully she told us we should come in and so we went in around 10:15 am.

After describing the side effects, they ordered Maggie's labs to be drawn as well as an x-ray on her belly. They determined that Maggie's breathing difficulties are due to her distended belly. The x-ray showed a lot of air in Maggie's belly as well as some solid stool (we have yet to see either). Maggie's labs showed that her potassium was down to 2.1, the lowest Maggie has ever been (3.7 and above is normal). Maggie's bi-carb, another description of her hydration was at 10.9 (normal is between 20-27). This would be considered dehydration, however she had 6 wet diapers before she was given fluids. The nurse explained to me that due to Maggie's breathing difficulties she most likely was not expelling the CO2 well enough, therefore, the low number. Dr. French explained it was all related to her diarrhea (obviously).

So, finally we got Maggie hooked up to fluids, 2 hours of a potassium bollus and 2 hours of rehydration fluids. I asked Dr. French whether Maggie's potassium dropped throughout the course of the week of steroids or during her 13 episodes the previous day, he said most likely the previous day. I then politely explained that I had tried to bring Maggie in on Monday, but was denied. Whatever the reason, she needed to be seen and I am glad that we were able to at least replenish her electrolytes some.

Dr. French is to the point where he is getting pretty frustrated with the diarrhea situation. He came into our clinic room tonight, after being there for 8 hours, and came up with a "game plan." He is taking her off her of appetite stimulant, Megase- this a possible diarrhea inducer. He has also said that once Maggie has one liquid stool to give her 5 ml of Immodium every 3 hours until it stops. If it doesn't stop, that evening we will be giving her an antibiotic that will hopefully stop the diarrhea. If this still doesn't stop it, Maggie will have to come into the clinic to get a shot, and then I will take home the remaining 3 or so shots to continue to give her. This is the routine that they use for kids that take an actual chemo drug that causes diarrhea. We have already begun this new regime as Maggie has had 4 diarrhea stools since coming home from the clinic. Ironically so, she didn't have one stool while there (they wanted to collect a sample which we then had to do at home). Diarrhea is our life so I can't imagine that we won't be going to stage 3 of this regime often.

One other piece to our new plan is that Maggie is not allowed to drink milk or juice, or eat raw fruits or vegetables. They want to do anything possible to not aggrivate the diarrhea further.

As for the Cincinnati Children's GI specialist. A wonderful nurse at Dayton has already made a call to the specialists and has said she will be "whining" to them to get Maggie in sooner. She is a wonderful woman who actually attends the church that we've been going to in Dayton since we moved here. Hopefully she'll be able to make a difference and we can get Maggie in sooner than the end of October. Dr. French is adament that the chemo is not causing this diarrhea. He has never seen a child suffer like this before.

Maggie will go in for labs tomorrow morning to see whether her levels have come back up. Please pray that they will be within the normal range and that Maggie's diarrhea will go away completely.