Brody is NOT Doing Well (Horrible Belly Pains)

Brody has endured more pain in the last 2 days than he has ever experienced. And, believe me, he has endured some serious pain.  For the last 2 days he has not been able to eat or drink anything and has been having horrible and extreme belly pains.  I took him into the hospital last night.  They admitted him and started him on IV fluids and IV anti-nausea medicines.  We could hear his belly gurgling and the pains were coming and going.  So, we thought Brody was having problems with stool getting stuck/moving through his GI (gastrointestinal) tract and that his pains were from a stool obstruction.  So we were very hesitant to give him morphine and other medications for the pain that could slow down the GI tract and make it even more difficult to resolve this situation.  It has been awful watching him suffer so bad and not be able to do anything to help him feel better.  He has had much shorter pains like this many, many times in the past and these would ultimately end when Brody finally had a significant bowel movement.  Yesterday and today though the pains were far more frequent and intense and we were moving on to days of waiting for it to finally resolve with no luck.  This evening Brody finally got an abdominal X-Ray to check for blocked stools.  But, there was no signs of this.  Instead, it looks like the tumor is causing a mechanical obstruction of his bowel.  

Brody's tumor is blocking the normal peristalsis of Brody's GI tract.  (Peristalsis in the gut or GI tract are series of wave-like muscle contractions that move food to different processing stations in the GI tract).  The tumor is blocking the gut from being able to complete the "wave."  This results in extreme pain each time the gut is blocked from completing it's series of wave-like muscle contractions.  

Since we now know that he does not have impacted stool (blocked stool), we are now able to start giving Brody medication that slows down the GI tract and helps stop some of the muscle contractions in the gut.  We are hoping starting these will help Brody feel much more comfortable.  He just finally received morphine by IV and bentyl by IM injection this evening to help with all of the pain he has been endearing.   Then, he is continuing to get zofran, benadryl, and lorazepam for the nausea.  

I spent last night at the hospital with Brody and tonight Bill is staying with him.  (One of us still needs to take Geordi and Jaden home in the evenings and then get them each ready for the next day....tonight I am wishing I would have asked a friend to help us out with Geordi and Jaden because I really would rather be at the hospital right now....tomorrow my dad is coming up to help out with Geordi and Jaden though....Bill and I should both be able to stay with Brody tomorrow night).  Brody just got his first dose of IV morphine when I was leaving the hospital with Geordi and Jaden this evening.  Bill texted that Brody was still having some belly pains when he was awakened.  He got his first dose of Bentyl about an hour after I left and Bill said that Brody went back to sleep after this shot.  Hopefully, he is able to stay asleep tonight and not be awakened all night by horrible belly pains.  I am praying for a peaceful night for Brody (and, of couse, a miracle healing too).