Jaelyn's Journey by Jenny Miller

In the first two months of Jaelyn’s life there were a few things that alarmed me. When I took my concerns to his doctor he always said, “You’re a first time mom, what you’re experiencing is normal.” I believed him. I was a first time Mom, I doubted myself because I didn't know any better.

Jaelyn would cringe in his sleep as if he had a tummy ache. He would whimper and moan while sleeping. He always spit up. At first it was just a little bit and I was told it was acid reflux. None of the tricks for acid reflux helped. Over time it became worse. His doctor switched him to soy formula and when that didn’t work they told me to put rice cereal in his formula to thicken it up and hopefully reduce the spit up. It all made his stomach issues worse.

On March 13, Jaelyn was three months old. He still wasn’t sleeping through night. He had spit up the bottle he would normally take before bed. He cried all night long. I called the on-call doctor and they told me he may have a stomach virus and to stop formula immediately. The doctor told me to give him four ounces of Pedialyte bottles. He also said to make him an appointment in the morning, especially if he threw up the Pedialyte, which he did.

I called the nurses line in the morning for a same day sick appointment. The nurse on the phone kept saying, “Are you sure it’s not just spit up?”

I was annoyed and tired so I gave her attitude, “I’m telling you this shit ain’t normal. He looks like something from ‘The Exorcist.’ His burps smell like rotten eggs and he won’t stop crying. We’ve been up for over 24 hours. I’m a single mom. There isn’t anyone to take him so I can sleep. I sleep when he sleeps, AND HE HASN’T SLEPT IN OVER 24 FREAKIN’ HOURS!” I was fed up; I wasn't overreacting, something wasn’t right and I knew it.

When I went into the doctor’s office, they treated me the same way they had over the phone, which annoyed me. The office closed at 4:00 PM and they made my appointment for 3:15. I felt like they weren’t really going to see us, like they were brushing us off. We sat in the waiting room until 3:55.

I walked up to the receptionist desk and said, “I don’t know what kind of operation you guys are running here. Head’s up, I am NOT leaving at four. I will sit in the same spot I have set in since 2:45 when we got here. You will need security to escort me off this property and you better believe I will be on the phone with my insurance filing a complaint on this whole freaking hospital for malpractice. SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH MY BABY AND YOU GUYS NEED TO HELP ME.” We got called back within minutes of the receptionist going back to talk to the nurses.

As the doctor was examining him, I sensed she had a preconceived notion that I was overreacting. She felt around his tummy and kept saying it had to be a virus. Then it happened. Jaelyn burped in her face and she got a whiff of the rotten eggs.

She said, “Oh that’s not normal, that smells like spoiled milk, we need to ultrasound his belly so we can see what’s going on in there.”

They sent us to the main hospital for an ultrasound. I had one Pedialyte bottle left and the ultrasound tech had left for the evening. They told me there was a 30 minute gap in between shifts and I would just have to wait it out. Jaelyn started crying, it was time for another feeding. I fed him the bottle of Pedialyte but he threw most of it up afterwards.

I will never forget the agony of having to hold my 3 month old son down in the ultrasound chair for them to look at his belly. His tears broke my heart. I kept telling him, “Don’t worry Booga, Mommy’s going to make it all better.” In my heart, I knew I couldn’t fix this on my own. In my mind, I knew that I was his voice and I had to be heard.

The ultrasound technician found the problem; Jaelyn was suffering from Pyloric Stenosis. The food wasn’t passing from the lower part of his stomach (pylorus) to his small intestine. The muscle in Jaelyn’s pylorus had become enlarged which caused a narrowing within the pyloric channel, preventing food from emptying out of his stomach. Projectile vomiting would occur when the channel filled up with food because Jaelyn ate faster than his body was able to pass it through. Pyloric Stenosis is the same concept as pouring too much fluid in a funnel at once.

The ultrasound technician told me he would need surgery to correct the issue and they were going to contact the children’s hospital to prepare a bed for him. I lost it. I couldn’t hold the tears back any longer. My perfect little boy wasn’t perfect. He was in pain and I couldn’t make it better on my own. Why hadn’t I pushed the issue sooner?

I didn’t know what to do. I was alone. Jaelyn was my life, everything I had done for the past year, was for him. Every decision I made from the moment I found I was pregnant, was made with his best interest at heart. I was so scared. If something happened to him, I had no reason to live.

I tried to contact his biological father. For the first time in a year, I needed him. I needed him to be there with me. I needed him to care. I needed him to hold his son and tell us that everything would be ok. I needed him to step up and be Jaelyn’s daddy; I needed him to be the man I used to date. However, he was nowhere near that man. He was a sex- crazed boy who only cared about his new fling. He had picked her over his son numerous times. This was the first time that I actually needed him; this was when I knew that no matter what happened in Jaelyn’s life, I was all he had and he was all I had.

The doctor came in and told me not to feed Jaelyn anything else. He needed to let the food that was in his stomach pass before they could operate. Jaelyn cried all night for a bottle. I slept on the tiny loveseat in his room. I never left his side. They gave me this stuff called "Sweet Ease” to dip his pacifier in to get him to take it and calm down. It helped in the middle of the night but by morning he was onto our tricks.

They did another ultrasound on him in the morning and there was still food in his stomach. They said they were going to put him on the list for an afternoon operation in order to allow the food to pass.

When it was time for his surgery, my whole family came to support us. Jaelyn’s biological grandparents and aunts also came but not his father. My heart was broken but I knew Jaelyn didn’t need him. He had me and I was strong enough to be Mommy and Daddy. He had my family and his biological dad’s family. He was finally surrounded by people who loved him. It put my aching heart at ease.

Despite the surgery taking place 24-hours after his last bottle, Jaelyn’s stomach still had to be pumped. Aside from that, everything went great. He had a speedy recovery. Jaelyn went from being an average sized child to being in the 99th percentile for his age in the months following the surgery. He grew so fast. He became the biggest Booga I have ever seen!

Don’t allow people in the medical field to disregard your concerns. Your intuition is almost as good as a medical degree. I’m proof, “Mama knows best.”

“Life With the Bearded J’s,” is Jenny’s unapologetic take on being mom to three kids and wife to Brandon, “The Beard.” Jenny writes from her heart and she always calls ‘em like she sees ‘em. One day she will become a wine drinker because she thinks it will make her look cool to do the swirly thing in the glass. When she is not busy being SuperMom, she’s hiding in her bathroom sneaking in writing time or playing on Facebook while she pretends to poop. Follow her bearded blog here: http://thebeardedjs.wordpress.com/

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