Some Theories but not Any Real Answers... Yet!

Sorry I'm just getting around to posting this! Last night, we came home and turned into ooze as soon as we sat on the couch.

So we saw a new to us gastroenterologist at DuPont yesterday. Some things he told us contradicted what we were previously told by the attending doctors on the floor.

He thinks that there are three major issues we could be fighting. And since Xander's diapers actually look normal (!!!!!) right now, we have to wait to see if we fixed the problem(s) or if his limited diet has helped control the diarrhea. (Most of the foods he is willing to eat are known to actually be constipating.)

First, Dr. S says that there is a possibility that Xander has had a Cdiff infection for quite some time. We were told that this would have been impossible, but according to Dr. S it is much more possible than we were originally told.

The second possibility is that Xander has suffered from an overgrowth of bacteria in his small bowel since he was 6 months old and then he also got Cdiff. Flagyl is used to treat overgrowths of bacteria so we could be fixing two things at once, unknowingly.

The third possibility is that Xander has something else going on and we would need to do further procedures to investigate that.

I know this seems rather broad but we are THRILLED to actually have someone discussing possibilities with us and making a plan.

So what's the plan?

First, Xander completes his medication for cdiff today. In 7-10 days we are going to have him retested to see if the cdiff is completely cleared. We are also going to keep a food diary and see what his diapers look like. If the cdiff is still there, we will have to retreat it with another round of antibiotics. If the diarrhea comes back, but the cdiff test is negative, we are going to arrange to do an endoscopy and a flexible sigmoidoscopy. They will also take samples to test enzymes. Dr. S prefers a flexible sigmoidoscopy over a colonoscopy because the extensive laxative prep isn't needed before a flexible sigmoidoscopy.

If Xander tests negative for cdiff and the diarrhea doesn't come back as he expands his diet then we are done even though we will never know for sure if it was a chronic infection of cdiff or an acute case of cdiff along with an overgrowth of bacteria. We would be thrilled even if we never find out "what" caused the issue.

With all that said, I cracked open our adoption file the night before we drove to Delaware to see what Xander's bowel habits were when he was in the hospital. According to those records, he had 5-8 bowel movements a day starting at birth. When we mentioned this to Dr. S, he said that information leads him to believe that we have something else going on that has been there since before the diarrhea started at 6 months old. If he had to guess, we ultimately will end up doing the endoscopy and the flexible sigmoidoscopy.

We are okay with this. We know it isn't a for sure, A then B then C kind of plan, but this is the closest thing we have ever gotten to a plan. We left that appointment encouraged.

Next we had an appointment with a dietitian. ALL of our prayers were met about this appointment and we quickly relaxed. The last nutritionist just sighed at the end of our conversation and said "Well, I guess we will have to use an NG tube." I was very upset about that because I felt that all the possibilities hadn't been exhausted. I wanted to know that we had done everything possible before we discussed an NG tube. Afterall, it had only been a week between hospital discharge and our appointment in Delaware.

Our new dietitian has the same thoughts. She said her timeline is more like 2 months. She believes that in 2 months we can see what Xander is willing to take. We will have the opportunity to exhaust our options and try everything we can to get him eating better.

She gave us some ideas to try and we are going to be in contact with her often to see if we can tweak things over the phone and via email. We are going to continue doing the weight checks with our local doctor and will report those back to her as well. This is exactly what we were praying for.

All in all, we felt like these two appointments were worth the drive and our time. We were pleased with our interactions with the gastroenterologist and the dietitian. So now we work on his nutrition and wait to do our lab tests for cdiff.

Thank you for your prayers. They were definitely felt yesterday as we drove and during our appointments.

~Stephanie