What a Week!

Wow, what a week we've had. It continued to be pretty busy, and E has continued to poop blood. We were expecting to have to wait several weeks to get in to see the pediatric GI doc, but they "just happened" to have a cancellation on Friday, so we got her in then. Our poor baby has lost 4 pounds in the last week, and is hardly eating anything, yet all this blood just comes out of her. The GI doc seemed like he knew his stuff and was really great with E. He thinks it is either a virus/infection or that she has ulcerative colitis. We got labs back today (instead of next T/W, which is what we were anticipating) that said she is positive for inflammation, which doesn't tell us a lot, but it does mean that she doesn't have a hole anywhere in her gut that's bleeding. Her white blood cell count was up, so that means her body is fighting something. Now we just don't know what.

I was running the results past my dad (who is a FNP) and he started wondering if she'd been tested for ecoli yet. Turns out, she hasn't, and after talking to the GI doc, (who "just happened" to be on call today) I took her over to the urgent care clinic and left a sample to be tested. We don't know when those results will come back.

I never, ever thought that as a mother, I would be hoping my child had ecoli, but I kind of am, just because then she can take medicine and get better...and avoid a colonoscopy! I SO do not want to prep her for that - nasty stuff to drink and two adult enemas! This is the kid that fights me brushing her teeth!

Plus, having an infection or virus would mean it would be something that could be cured and go away - ulcerative colitis is a lifetime thing, and she's awfully young to have it.

I have pictures of her work in the toilet (that I took along to show the GI doc) but I don't think I'll post them? Yeah, never say I don't do favors for you!

Thanks so much for your support and prayers. This is such a hard time for her, and for us. Knowing we have prayerful cheerleaders makes such a big difference to us!