Pancreatitis for the First Time in 5 Months!

In the ER on July 13, 1013 before being admitted

     Well, we had a good 5 month break from hospitals and severe pain, but Pancreatitis reared it's ugly head again on July 13, 2013.  It started out like a normal Saturday morning with Dan at work and me and Shade lazily rolling out of bed around 1:00.  haha  We are night owls and love to stay up late and get up late on the weekends and during the summer.  Anyway, I didn't realize that anything was off at first.  He was waking up and watching TV on the couch.  Then at about 1:30 he told me that his tummy hurt and he asked for an Ibuprofen.  I had that familiar sinking feeling, but I tried to stay optimistic.  I gave him the medicine with a little juice and tried to assure him and myself that he would feel better in a few minutes.  At about 1:40, he pooped and I was more hopeful that things might settle down.  Well, at 2:00 he was literally screaming in pain.  Dan had the car, so I called my Mom and Dad in tears and asked them to come take us to the ER.  I gave Shade a half of a hydrocodone (which he was prescribed just for this reason) to help him until we could get to the hospital and then I packed and got things ready to go.
     When we arrived at the ER things went as they usually do.  We waited and waited and answered a million questions and then it was time for an IV so they could draw blood and give him pain meds.  It took forever and it was very difficult to distract him from the pain.  My Mom was such a huge help and my Dad was a trouper waiting in the waiting room due to only two adults being allowed in the ER room.  Of course, his levels were elevated and he was admitted very late that night.
     Things proceeded as they normally do and he was at first allowed no food or drink and only IV hydration and pain meds.  His pain was managed much better this time as we are learning to speak up more and demand they change the dose or the time intervals between so that he is suffering the least amount possible.  We have also learned that even if it is out of the nurse's hands, we can always demand to speak with a doctor so that orders can be changed.  We have become better at utilizing the Child Life workers and all of their resources and after 7 hospitalizations we have finally settled into the rhythm of life at the hospital.  It is not easy and it is still very exhausting, but there is comfort in familiarity.
     He was allowed to drink and then eat and his pain became less and less.  He loves to tell jokes to the nurses and we've found that he likes to ride up and down in the bed and "surprise" the nurses when they walk in by having the bed as high as it will go.  He is such a trouper and so resilient.  I die a little inside every time I have to watch him suffer, but he just bounces right back as if it's nothing.  He was given an abdominal ultrasound to make sure that there were no gallstones even though Dr. Palermo said that there were.  We were relieved, albeit frustrated with human error, to find out that he does NOT have gallstones at all.  If he had, they would have wanted to do an MRCP and then probably surgery to remove it.  No surgery is good news and we were allowed to go home on July 18.  Then all we had to do was prepare for our trip to Minnesota to see what the experts had to say about everything.  Details coming up!