Round Two: Ding, ding!

Today I got the run around from the lab and our doctor's office. It was a giant mess of tangled knots and I was pretty sure at one point I was being "Punk'd" or being taped for Candid Camera. If only people could actually listen to what is being said.

I don't have the energy to rehash the craziness that I went through.

Anyway, it all boils down to the fact that we FINALLY got to speak with our doctor. The lab results are not going to be done until Monday (another long story) but due to Xander's history and the fact that he recently had cdiff and is showing symptoms of it again, we are treating it.

The other possibility is that he has SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth) but the treatment is the same: Flagyl (an antibiotic) for three weeks this time.

If he shows improvement over the weekend, we know that it is one of those two. If he shows no improvement then it is something else (barring an inappropriately handled sample or the test being performed incorrectly.)

Once he does 16 days of the antibiotic we will add a probiotic to try to get the bacteria in his GI tract in a better balance. He would remain on the probiotic twice a day for at least 4 weeks. The doctor gave me the name of a product he recommended, but after looking it up, it contains lactose and the label says that it possibly contains soy. We will obviously need an alternative to that. *sigh* It just never ends.

If the test results come back on Monday and say that it was cdiff negative, then we are more likely to have SIBO. If symptoms reoccur in the future, with negative cdiff testing, we will have to look into WHY he gets the overgrowth. That would come via endoscopy.

So we are slightly closer to a possibility of an answer, but it will continue to be a slow going thing.

We did ask our doctor (again) about being around other children, since Xander was in the nursery at church this past Sunday and we have three other children. Our gastroenterologist says that cdiff is spread through fecal-oral transmission. Meaning, washing hands after diaper changes are of utmost importance and of course washing your hands before meals is also of importance. I'm a little OCD about washing my hands so although I have no spleen (and therefore am technically considered immune compromised) I have not contracted cdiff and neither have any of our children (who are constantly around Xander.)

But we will keep him away from church until his symptoms improve, just in case. I just didn't want anyone thinking we are out contaminating places or knowingly putting other children at risk. We would never knowingly do that. I mean, we are the same people that stay home from church if one of our children has a runny nose.

Pray we see improvement over the weekend. While it may mean a long road, at least we would KNOW what we are fighting.

~Stephanie