Preliminary Findings

Alexander is SUCH a trooper! He has been an AMAZING patient! Because he had already had an endoscopy, we knew what to expect.  This really helped us prepare Alexander for what was going to happen.  The past few days we talked pleasantly about what was going to happen, and we made sure to reference it as a "procedure."  We wanted him to be able to differentiate this experience from regular doctor appointments.  He willingly participated in the all of the pre-op procedures and continued to be cooperative when we went into the OR. 

His new doctor was very thorough with us after the procedure.  She showed us the images from his GI tract and went over everything with us (a very different experience from last time!).  So...here's what she found:

The first thing she noted was some excessive bleeding when taking the tissue sample from his esophagus.  This was likely indicative of inflammation, and the biopsy report will shed more light on this. 

The second thing she noted was that Alexander has a hiatal hernia.  The hernia prevents the opening of his stomach from closing all of the way and allows the contents of his somach to rise back up. At the moment, his doctor is on the fence regarding whether or not to surgically correct it.  She wants to wait on the pathology report before deciding anything. 

If surgery is not done at this time, it is definitely a condition that we will be monitoring and may require correction in the future.

So for now, we wait for the biopsy results and keep Alex happy and comfortable.  We should hear back in a week or so.

We could not be more pleased right now with how everything went.  Thank you all so much for your prayers and kind words.  We felt very at ease this morning and could totally focus on making the process as comfortable as possible for Alex.

More questions, few answers

Alexander had his 2 month appointment with the GI Specialist today.  We discussed how he was doing with the fiber, and everyone is very pleased with how his lower system is responding.  We are going to keep him on one fiber supplement a day and look to increase his fiber some more through the foods he eats. 

The doctor was displeased, however, about his reflux.  He will be having another endoscopy on Friday.  She will be looking over his upper GI tract and taking biopsies from his esophagus.  If results from that show that treatment is needed, that will obviously be addressed after his surgery.  If not, he will go back again in 2 months. 

Also, I was very surprised that he didn't gain any weight.  He grew an inch, but didn't gain any weight. We suspect that he lost weight initially with the fiber, and gained it back again. 

We just really hope that this endoscopy will shed some light on what's happening with his little system and he doesn't have to go through another of these procedures.  As he gets older, he remembers more and more.