Wednesday Morning Update: Procedure Prep

Annie's colonoscopy prep hasn't gone well. She was given a couple different fluids to help with clean out but very little stayed down. She is still struggling to keep down her other regular meds as well. Hydration continues to be a problem despite the IV. She is receiving another IV bolus this morning to help prepare her for her procedure. Low potassium is also still a concern heading in to surgery, so we are closely watching her electrolytes.

Her endoscopy and colonoscopy have been pushed back a little later today--currently scheduled now for 11:15, still dependent on her next lab values and electrolyte levels.

We highly suspect that she has a gastric outlet obstruction. Whenever Annie is sick and vomiting, it is normal for her to bring up bile because she had a pyloroplasty when she was little. That pyloroplasty opened up the bottom of her stomach, allowing her stomach to empty more efficiently. (When she was 2 years old, her stomach stopped emptying.) So bile usually finds its way easily into her stomach and often comes up when she's sick. However, we haven't seen any bile in the 9 days she's been vomiting and nothing is staying in her stomach. We are seeing medications come back up literally days after they were given. So we really suspect they find some sort of blockage. But we'll wait and see what the scope today shows. The diarrhea is most likely from a different issue, still possibly a colitis flare up, but we still aren't sure. Annie has started on bactrim for her UTI, but we're not sure any of it is getting into her system.

Molly and Lexie have a lot going on with school but they worry about Annie. We are trying to provide some sort of normal for them, but they even say that hospitalizations feel rather normal and they enjoy being able to come visit Annie in the evenings.

Thank you so much to everyone who is keeping Annie and our family in your prayers!



I've discovered why Justin has been so kind to spend the night at the hospital two nights in a row. He says Annie really likes watching video games!