The McMillin's: Little Landry Lu

What a weekend we had with LuLu!! (No, that's not her name, but that's what we call her. "LuLu", Landry Lu, etc. ) ***totally off topic, but too cute not to share***I had gone to a get together at church the other night and Brandon sent me a text about a conversation that the twins were having. (When you read this, think of how little kids talk and sound.)

Landry: whats my name?
Brynlee: You landgee nay (Translation - Landry Renee)
Landry: No, you say Lu Lu
Landry: What's your name?
Brynlee: mine? I Bwynlee Lay (Translation - Brynlee Lane)

Guess you just had to be there....

Any-who...

Every since Landry was a couple months old, she has always had issues with constipation. I have taken her to her pediatrician so many times trying to figure out something that would work for her. If you get grossed out easily, now would be the time to quit reading (Mitch) haha. When Landry would have a bowl movement, they were SO big and SO hard that they hurt! She would be so stiff legged and turn beet red. It got to the point where she would start shaking because she had to go so bad, but she knew it would hurt when it came out, that she began to hold it. With that being said, she became impacted and backed up. She would go days without pooping - and that is not good, especially for someone that little. A lot of people have asked me if it was because we were potty training - no - it started way before potty training ever began! Our pediatrician is the best and we Love her!! She had me do 2 pediatric enemas in one weekend. Of course, Brandon was out of town at this time. Since I had never had to do anything like this, I had my mom help me. We laid Landry down and did the enema...she screamed! That kid has some lungs! Within about 10 minutes, she had a bowel movement. This thing was huge...and hard! It resembled a golf ball...size, shape, firmness, etc. I promise, that is no exaggeration either. I felt SO bad for her. Since I didn't have a pull up on her at the time, she just went on the towel. Well, mom said it was fine, she was just going to throw the towel away. Somehow, she threw the wrong towel away and put that one (with the poop) in the wash machine. It went through the entire wash cycle, on HOT HOT and came out the exact same as it went in! That's when we knew for sure there was a problem! We went back Dr. Hull and she had me try a few more things. So we did what she suggested over the next few months.

At this point, there was nothing else that she could do. She referred us to a GI specialist at Cooks. I met with him. He ordered an x-ray to see exactly what things looked like. Those results came back and said that 3/4 of her colon had formed stool in it. So he had me do a "cleanse" on her. That cleanse consisted of: 1 cap full of miralax a day (3 times a day), 1 adult ex-lax per day and 2 enemas. All in a 5 day time frame. WOW!! Yes that worked some, but I just knew there was so much more in there. So he had us to it again. Only this time, I told him I was not doing the enemas. She would get to where she wouldn't trust us when we went to change her diaper. She would say "no more medicine in my bottom?!" I just couldn't do that to her anymore. Again, not a whole lot of change. She was going more and it was the consistency that he wanted (applesauce/pudding) but it was going around what was stuck in there, so it wasn't moving the hard part out. He suggested we do one more thing...and that was to do 1 cap full of miralax every hour - for 6 hours. (We got about half way through it before she wouldn't drink anymore of it.) I called on Monday morning and let his nurse know how that went. He wanted to see us on Wednesday and we would discuss our next plan of action. He decided that he would admit her and do a "heavy cleanse".

We went to Cooks about mid day Friday. They gave her an IV for fluids. The first one they tried, was bad...it blew. The second one worked, but she screamed louder. The third and final thing they had to do was the absolute worst! The NG tube. (Her and Brynlee both had one when they were in the NICU, so I didn't think much of it.) This is a tube that they stick in her nose and it goes all the way down to her tummy and get the medicine directly there. I had to walk out when they were putting the NG tube in her. She was screaming and gagging and started throwing up. It just broke my heart and I couldn't watch it any longer. I felt so helpless! Let me rephrase that, it isn't "medicine" they gave her - it is what adults drink when they have to have a colonoscopy. It's called "Go Lightly". Being that they knew she wouldn't drink it, this was the only way to get it down her. Poor Brandon - he is one trooper! He was holding her while the nurses were putting the NG tube in her. I know it broke his heart in to a million pieces! He was so strong for her though! Once they got the tube in and we got her calmed down, they starting pushing the Go Lightly through the tube. She was on a clear liquids diet but didn't really want to drink anything. She was able to go on a wagon ride around the halls and we pulled her IV pole with us. It was kind of hard, because when she would get out of the wagon and wanted to walk by herself, she didn't understand that she was "attached" and couldn't run off or get too far away from us.

Finally after about 9 hours - it kicked in and started working. We heard her tummy rumbling and making all kinds of noises. Now, if you know Brandon and I, you know that I don't do throw up and he doesn't do poop. So we balance each other out there. Landry was tooting at first, and the smell...oh my gosh, the smell. Awful! She had her first bowel movement about 1 am on Saturday morning. Once that started, it was about every 15 minutes or so. Needless to say, none of us got much sleep at all. It was about the 2nd BM that she had, when Brandon lost it! I had him in the bathroom throwing up (from the smell) and Landry had poop everywhere. I had to call a nurse in to help me because Brandon was out of commission. I mean, we had to change sheets, blankets, clothes...the whole 9 yards! This went on throughout the night and lasted until about 7 am when the Go Lightly stopped (which was ONE GALLON!!) There were a couple times when it was bad that Brandon had his shirt up over his nose or a blanket wrapped around his face - anything to block the smell. About 9 am, they came and did an x-ray to see if she was cleaned out. Praise the Lord...she was! By the time the doctor made his rounds and told us we could go home, it was about 4 pm. While waiting on the discharge papers, Brandon and I took her downstairs at Cooks and let her do a Build A Bear. She loved it! We let her pick everything out. She was so excited to get out of there and see her sisters! It was so sweet, when we got home, Brynlee was standing next to her and started rubbing her back and said "Hi Stister. Hi Stister."

We are glad to be home and hope to never have to go through that again! Here are a few pictures of our adventure...don't worry, there are no gross ones! Thank you so much for all the prayers, texts, calls, etc that we got. We really appreciate it!