Free Fluid in Abdomen

Hello friends. Ava got her ultrasound yesterday. Our local hospital told us that Ava had a "pocket of fluid" by her bladder. I called University of Iowa Children's hospital this morning as soon as they opened. The GI doctor (Dr. Lee) called me right back. She suggested I take Ava to our local ER and get a CT scan. So we went out and were so glad to find there wasn't a wait. She was really worried as her right side and her lower back was aching.

This was yesterday at our local hospital.

 This is from today... Ava was not happy to learn she had to get an IV in order to do the IV contrast. Poor little lady was so worried. Bless her heart. The first nurse made two attempts at an IV and then she brought another lady in that got it on her first try. Thank you, Lord!

Ava getting ready to go into the CT machine. I told her that after they injected the die into her IV she would have the taste of metal in her mouth, then have a very warm and comfortable feeling come over her, and next she would feel like she had to go pee. Yes all of that happened to her. I know this machine all too well due to kidney stones.

Waiting for results.

So we learned that Ava has a lot of free fluid in her abdomen on her right side. The picture below is the fluid. It is not encased in anything it is just in there beside her small intestines. No wonder she is bloated. The ER doctor consulted her University of Iowa surgeon and they both thought that since she didn't have a fever, she was just uncomfortable but not in extreme pain that it wasn't an emergency, we could have her surgeon look at her this coming week to determine the cause. They discharged us with instructions... I was very nervous leaving. However we were in the midst of a really bad snow storm so I knew it was not possible to do anything else and I remembered from her NICU/PICU days the nurses always said. "Look at Ava not the monitors. This tells us how she is really doing." They were right. I circled the free fluid below. It is A LOT. Please keep Ava in your prayers. 

As soon as we got home. I called the University and talked to the on call resident. He review the notes that the ER doctor and the on call surgeon discussed. He reassured me that there really is nothing to be done right this second. If Ava gets worse to bring her back to the emergency room but until they can get her in next week he thought she should be fine. Free fluid is not uncommon but this much is not good. Ava's surgeon will discuss what we are going to do from here. This worries me of course but I believe that God has Ava and He will let us know if she needs immediate attention. 

Please pray for her and that whatever this will either disappear or that the solution is simple. I'm just really unsure of how it came to be here. Her blood work all came back normal and they say it is not infection and the fluid is not blood. She's already been through so much. She's now at the age where she is able to listen to her body. I'm very thankful for that. We will just be patient and know that God knows our tomorrow.  -Terri