Clay had his pediatric GI appointment yesterday and it was a great day with him.
I don't mean to sound like I'm playing favorites, but Clay is just so easy, I can't help be in a good mood with him. Why not? He's always in a good mood.
We drove for about 2.5 (pilsung) hours to West Hills, CA. (Thank GOODNESS for GPS huh?) had a nice relaxing lunch at a Thai restaurant, followed by ice cream and then finally to Clay's appointment.
(And don't think to e-mail me telling me that Clay's issues are directly related to the amount of Thai food him or I -while I was nursing him- eat. I've already cleared that with the Dr, thankyouverymuch.)
Here's the lowdown:
She pretty much ruled out Cystic Fibrosis, which was the big scare we were concerned with, which is AWESOME!!!
With all the lab work and his previous records, her first guess is Celiac Disease. The only way to be sure is to take a biopsy of his small intestine (via endoscopy) and look at it under the microscope. I kinda wish they'd let me look at the slides, brings out my inner scientist.
Here is a normal small intestine and a damaged one:
They'll put him under general, it'll take approx. 30 minutes and I think they'll be able to tell us by the time he wakes up. Or at least I'm hoping they will...Surely they don't have to send the slides off...we're in LOS ANGELES PEOPLE, get a freaking microscope!
My only concern is that he is HUNGRY (with a capital H) when he wakes up and is going to be very upset that he cannot eat that morning...poor kiddo.
For those who don't know what Celiac Disease is, it's an auto immune disease that allows gluten (anything with wheat, oats and barley) to destroy the lining of your small intestines. The villi (that absorb nutrients) are destroyed and makes you unable to absorb nutrients from your food. There's a whole slew of symptoms, but the treatment is basically just living a life that is gluten free. Which - thankfully because of the Internet and blogs and the recent 'interest' in gluten free diets won't be as hard as it has in the past. While everything from yogurt to bread to chap stick has gluten in it, there is quite a big effort out there in the big, wide world, to make alternatives for people unable to have gluten.
If Clay has this, the only other treatment may be some vitamins to help get in the required nutrients and he should be able to be perfectly healthy. It's really a very manageable disease, more just a 'pain-in-the-ass-because-now-I-have-be-a-food-label-Nazi-for-the-rest-of-my-life' disease.
For Clay's gallstones - they're going right to the source. The Dr. wants to remove his gallbladder since he has so many stones and they are pretty large. Right now, they don't seem to be causing him any issues, but there is a high probability that they will travel and (with how big they are) get stuck in his biliary duct and cause pancreatitis, liver blockage or severe jaundice. Those are way more scary than just a gallstone hanging around. So, she said we're just getting rid of the whole dern thing.
Clay's largest gallstone is bigger than these:
They'll do it laproscopically, it should only take about a half hour and he should be fine within a few days. And knowing Clay - he'll take it all in stride - probably won't even cry a tear and just want to snuggle (which is fine by me :)
All these procedures will be done at a 'local' pediatric hospital in Tarzana. It's kind of a drive, but when we get things scheduled (of course we have to wait for Tricare and a surgery referral) we'll asses whether we need to spend the night down there or not.
Maybe Clay will at least have bragging rights as he gets older, "Well, yeah, I had my first ORGAN removed at 15 months."
