Endoscopy Adventures

My Silly Man in the Waiting Room

Praying and Singing... it was just me and him in our own little world.

This past Monday, Xander had an endoscopy done as an outpatient procedure. We woke up bright and early and loaded him into the van. We allowed him to wear his footie pajamas and as I looked in the backseat with only one child, he seemed like such a big boy.

Goodness, I can close my eyes and still remember every detail around his arrival. Every smell, the sounds, what else was going on in our lives. Has it really been 2.5 years? I remember what his skin felt like, unwrapping him and studying every millimeter of his body.

And I'll always remember the day that I walked into the nursery and he heard my voice and went ballistic as I was scrubbing in. He cried hysterically until I got everything settled and picked him up. He knew we belonged together after just a few days of us visiting and caring for him. I rocked him and cried and cried. It was our moment, where I feel that he recognized me as his forever mama.

I was really nervous about the procedure and hadn't sleep well. But with God's help, I held it together. He was not happy about not being able to eat or drink. He has a serious coconut milk/sippy cup habit.

He was a bit of a handful and didn't like waiting but before we knew it, they walked away with our oldest son. And it didn't bother him a bit!

We sat in the waiting room and tried to watch TV but the only thing that I was successful at watching was the clock.

Soon, we were called back and walked into the recovery area. He was sleeping peacefully and I had time once again to take every bit of him in. His eyelashes slay me.

Dr. V came and showed us pictures he had taken. He felt there was some inflammation and found a mass in his stomach that he said looked like misplaced pancreatic tissue. He wasn't overly concerned about that though. He said we'd get the biopsies back by Friday.

Then came the task of waking my sleeping prince. He was perfectly still and snoozing away. But the nurse started to worry that he wasn't waking up and it made me panic. I was rubbing and kissing and talking to him with no response. Every minute that went by made me panic more and soon after, I stuck my cold hand down the back of his flannel sleeper... and he started to stir.

I hope I don't sound like a bad mama when I say this.. but I've never been happier to see a sleeping child wake up before in my life. :)

The nurse was concerned about his low blood pressure so she looked at his chart to compare it to his intake blood pressure and it was about the same and we were on our way.

We were advised to keep him laying or sitting all day, but I'm pretty sure they had no clue how active he is. He was rather dizzy and lacked balance so we watched him carefully and when he became whiny, we put him down for a morning nap. When he woke up, he appeared to feel much better and the rest of the day seemed quite normal.

Yesterday, Wednesday, we got the results of those biospies. When Brandon answered the phone, the color drained from his face and he asked me to walk to the bedroom. My heart pounded a zillion beats in those few steps.

Turns out the doctor had asked to speak with both of us together via speakerphone. Brandon had no idea why and feared the worst. Dr. V let us know that all the pathology came back normal and didn't even show inflammation. The mass he saw was not misplaced pancreatic tissue but was typical gastric tissue.

Basically, even after all that, we still have no idea why he has chronic diarrhea.

So what is the gameplan?

Well... we are to keep the allergist appointment on Wednesday. If she finds nothing (which we have totally been warned may happen.. even with his known food allergies, then we go back to the gastroenterologist. We are supposed to leave his diet the same unless the allergist tells us otherwise.

We will see the doctor in 6 weeks for another clinic visit. We'll check weight and height and if there are continued issues we'll discuss a colonoscopy to check for colitis or doing an endoscopic ultrasound on the mass in his stomach to see if that could cause the diarrhea.

Basically, another wait and see type thing. There is a also possibility that we will find nothing and that Xander has what is known as toddler diarrhea (similar to IBS in adults.)

As I share this news, I have to wonder if God has used the diarrhea to get us to the gastroenterolgoist which noticed the cafe au lait spots so Dr. V would ask questions about his cafe au lait birthmarks with the end result being a referral for a neurofibromatosis screening. I've never forgotten that God can do anything and can use anyone.

I also wonder if God is using us to spread the word about adoption. ;) We've gotten quite a few questions about adoption in general.

We see the allergist on the 21st and she came highly recommended by our gastroenterologist and several of our friends from church.

We appreciate your prayers as we desperately seek answers to help our son. They mean the world to us and quite honestly those prayers are the glue that keeps me together on some days.

Glued,

~Stephanie