This week I have done things that I never thought in my wildest dreams I would ever do.
Don't get too excited as this is pretty "gross".
My little guy, his G/I tract is just a mystery to me some times. Never know what to expect. It has been that way since he was but a few weeks old. So I've learned to not be phased too much by things.
Noonan Syndrome comes with a whole host of medical issues. G/I tract is not exempt! I'm starting to think this is a big place for which his "problems" will lie, medically speaking. I just have a hunch.
We started out with refluxing, but he had strange refluxing. More the sporadic type rather than a constant. He also is (or was) the silent refluxer. Meaning, he would reflux but it wouldn't come out in full vomit glory. It would just float up and then he'd most likely swallow it back down. Because of that, the pediatrician insisted on an ultrasound when he was but 6 weeks old thinking that maybe he had a serious condition called pyloric stenosis. Essentially the narrowing of the spot between the stomach and the small intestine and would require immediate surgery. The first ultrasound was pointing towards him having this condition but we had to wait two days to see if it got worse. The second ultrasound didn't pick this issue up. So we were then urged to see a G/I specialist and they ran a battery of upper G/I x-rays after he consumed a substrate. All looked fine. He just had the bad case of reflux and we finally found the right medicine and he did just fine.
Fast forward to November/December 2010 when my little guy decided to stop eating. It was a slow process but by early January 2011 he decided food was over rated. Long story short, an endoscopy was performed and it appears that he may have celiacs disease (or at least a gluten intolerance). So we eliminated gluten from his diet and he's slowly but steadily has started eating again. So I'm pretty confident that gluten was causing him some issues.
Donovan has never been one of those children that has loosey goosey poops. He's more of the solid kind of pooper. (I know lovely - and I hope you aren't eating while reading this - so sorry if you are. And just to warn you it gets worse! So you might want to put down that sandwich or snack or hurry up and finish it before you read much further). Since being potty trained, he's been pretty regular and things look good. Then we hit this week and for some reason he's been very constipated. Not sure what changed in his diet other than he really likes popcorn, but on Monday he tells me he has to poop and then goes to the bathroom and I hear him straining and then screaming in pain. He asked me if it was coming out. So I had to look, lovely. So here I am watching my son poop up close and personal. In fact, I had to help him along with a nice bunch of toilet paper. And then I noticed blood and a lot of it. He finally pooped this enormous poo and it was from top to bottom filled with blood. Not knowing what to do, I grabbed two ziplock bags and proceeded to collect the poop from the toilet. Yes, I really did this because I didn't know if they would need a sample. I bagged the speciman and then put it in a ziplock "container" to hopefully contain the smell - thinking I'd have to take it with me to either the doctor's office, ER or a lab. So given that he has a bleeding disorder I called my husband for some guidance. Should I or should I not call the G/I doctor or the Hematologist? Which one should I call, decisions-decisions. I decided to start with the G/I doctor. It took some time to get someone to call me back, which was frustrating because my child does have this bleeding disorder and I don't want to take him to the ER because, no offense to the ER doctors, but you're not the specialists I need to see. I didn't want to have to explain my son's medical history for the millionth time only to be re-routed to the specialist anyway. After explaining the situation, they suggested I take him to get his blood drawn to determine his blood count and levels, etc. The next morning they told me it was normal but it had dropped in levels. So if I found more blood in his poop then I needed to call them ASAP and get him in to be seen or take him to the dreaded ER.
Tuesday rolls around, no poop. Wednesday while at school, he poops. Fortunately I was at school when it happened and I saw the blood. My husband was with me and he called the G/I doctor's and got an appointment. The doctor was kind enough to squeeze us in for an appointment and after doing a "butt exam" of which I had to hold my poor little boy down while his dignity and private area was being invaded but ever so gently and he was screaming ever so loudly, the glove test came up positive instantly for "blood". So here we are stumped. There was no obvious visual signs of a tear the color of the blood sort of indicated that the problem might be up higher in the colon. So that's a valid concern. The blood also appeared to be mixed inside the poop and not on the outside, that too was a concern. And given that Donovan had a huge problem after a simple endoscopy procedure, the doctor was not quick to want to do anything invasive. I honestly don't want her to do anything invasive either. She mentioned that maybe he has a polyp, but it's really quite rare to have such a polyp at his age. Like maybe 1% of the population if that many. I sighed ... because the odds of him having the complication from his endoscopy last year was like 1 in 1,000,000 or even less likely than that and he ended up with one.
We decided to wait things out a little. Fill him up with Miralax and hopefully whatever is bleeding will repair and heal on its own. Meanwhile, since he was on an antibiotic for a sinus infection, we have to rule out C-diff. Although he doesn't have any symptoms other than blood in his poop, we need to rule it out. So I waited all day long for him to poop yesterday, no dice. I held him back from school today because I was afraid he'd poop at school and I wouldn't get a specimen. So low and behold, he finally poops after he begged me to be with him when he went and rub his back. He kept asking me if it was coming out and I was coaching him like he was giving birth to a baby. But he finally pooped and I grabbed my specimen and brought it to the lab. There was still a trace of blood but not quite like it had been earlier this week.
As I collect this lovely specimen and wash my hands 3 times just to be safe - I'm thinking about how when I wanted to have children, I never thought that I would stick my hand in a toilet to collect poop, that I would help my son poop, nor would I be coaching my child to poop as if he was giving birth to a baby.
Oh, the things a Mom does for her children. He's lucky he's so darn cute!
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