In line with Poop, Addie has been tested for more things than I care to remember. Most recently, Hirschsprung’s Disease.. which is actually a birth defect. Fortunately it was negative, but the test was unbearable! I brought my camera to document it, but in lieu of the tears I was holding back, and the tears she wasn’t, I couldn’t break myself away from her long enough to snap a few photos.
On Friday morning bright and early we got up and played, I knew the rest of the day would be miserable and I wanted her to have as much time playing as possible. At 9:00 we headed up to Primary Childrens Hospital with Grams for Addie’s Barium Enima. I knew this would be torture but really, I had no idea just how greusome it would be. Fortunately the nurses were REALLY nice and one had been through this before with her daughter, for some reason that helped.
I stripped Addie naked and layed her down on an X-ray table for the procedure. With her favorite toys in hand and mommy’s assuring face staring into her BIG blue eyes, the tears started to form. Now, if you don’t have children and are not aware of what the tears of a 7 month old baby look like… they are heartwrenching. Giant, Alligator tears streaming down her cheeks as the nurses insterted a tube the only place you can insert a tube when gettting an enima. They then proceded to tape the tube to her little butt cheeks. A large rolled up ace bandage went between her chubby little thighs and another wrapped around her legs making her look like some sort of make-shift mermaid being tested by the Government in a secret lab somewhere near Area 51. It seemed like hours as the 2 minutes passed waiting for the doctor to come in. Then, the screaming strarted, she went from frightened and slightly uncomfortable to panicked and in pain as the barium filled her intestines and pressed on her stomach. Boy was I glad I hadn’t fed her yet! Grams tried to distract her with the “Open them, Close them” hands game, but Addie was already determined to let us know how mad she was and even her favorite games were not helping. The whole process took less than 15 minutes from the time she became a mermaid to the time they transformed her back into my little angel.
As soon able, I scooped her up in my arms and held back my tears once again. They crying continued as Grams and I got her dressed and back to normal. Once we left the room, she settled down and a bottle soothed her back to “normal”.
The rest of the day was spent at Grams and Grumps house. They entertained her when she was awake and while I napped some of the stress away. I had no guilt holding her all day and well into the evening. She recovered nicely and was fairly content on Saturday. I just keep reminding myself, even though I will remember this for the rest of my life, she won’t remember it at all, big blessings for such a little wonder.
