Don't eat the Skittles...

Garrett was admitted to CHOP on Monday night. 

He started to have some abdominal pain around his stoma this past Saturday, then threw up multiple times Sunday and Monday. Because he's an IBD kid, we were immediately concerned that there could be a blockage in his GI tract, but we were also hoping it may just be a virus he caught from Gibson.

However, his condition did not improve and we brought him to the ED on Monday afternoon. A sump tube was inserted nasally to drain his stomach and to administer contrast for a CT scan. After the CT scan, there was good and not-so-good news: the blockage seems to be right at the stoma and there were no adhesions further up the small intestine to address (the really, really good news)... however, the blockage has not resolved itself after several attempts to help it, and Garrett now needs to undergo a stoma revision (ie, surgery... the not-so-good news). 

Garrett is currently scheduled for the procedure around 11am this morning. Stoma revisions are old hat for Garrett, so we are hopeful that it goes well, that the blockage will be fixed and he'll be back on his feet and out of here (relatively) quickly. 

More to come! 

P.S. "Don't eat the Skittles"... what does the title mean? 

Garrett already has some known food restrictions (popcorn, as the kernels can lacerate his already fragile intestinal walls). People with IBD have an abnormal GI tract, which means they cannot eat like everyone else. A stoma, an artificial structure your body was not intended to have, complicates this even more. Your intestines, unlike say, a garden hose, are not a static tube that sits passively as things pass through. Instead, your intestines are made of smooth muscle which contracts and constantly shifts around in your abdomen to push food along.

Gummy/taffy type "food" that does not easily break down in the stomach (Skittles, Airheads, Now and Laters, Starburst, etc.) can cause a person's intestines to work much harder and move around more. For someone with a stoma, this can lead to kinks and blockages that may not resolve on their own and require surgery.

Garrett had a lot of Skittles on Saturday which may have contributed to this... All told, Garrett's junk food/sweet tooth habit is going to be highly regulated after this... Your body is a temple.