JTOK Chatter

So we had another follow-up appointment with Owen’s pediatric GI this morning. He asked me how it was going and when I said “About the same—lots of poopy undies even after almost-weekly clean outs…” he felt Owen’s abdomen and told me he would definitely suggest another hospitalized clean out (he can still feel poop up too far). He basically said “What are you doing this weekend?” And I was honestly like a deer in the headlights because I DID NOT expect that.

I asked how that could be since I’ve been much more aggressive with the clean-outs—doing them more frequently and REALLY making sure he’s cleaned out (i.e. waiting until we get multiple instances of very watery diarrhea)—and he said I probably AM cleaning him out to a certain extent, but that there’s just too much in there so I’m getting (say) the first “chunk” (so to speak) but not the rest. So, if I KEPT going, I’d likely get more. Also, the doc said that since I’m still letting Owen eat during these clean-outs, that just adds more…

So…I said that this weekend really wouldn’t work because it’s hard to get a sitter. The doc suggested Owen was old enough to stay by himself—but sorry, even though we’ve been there once and he wouldn’t be unfamiliar with everything, there’s NO WAY I am leaving him in the hospital by himself. I told him Tom was coming home in a few weeks and asked if we couldn’t wait until then and he said that was fine—it took a year to get to this point, another few weeks isn’t going to make a big difference.

Owen didn’t seem to freak out at the thought of having to go again, but when I asked if he wanted to try a no-food clean-out at home to try and avoid going to the hospital, he said yes. Now, I’m sure it SOUNDS good, but when the time comes for him to only have juice and NOTHING else, he might be singing another tune. (He can have popsicles and broth, but he doesn’t like either of those.) He was concerned about what TYPE of juice he could have and when I told him he could have apple juice, he was happy. So we’ll see. I can call the doc’s office at any time to tell them we’re ready for the hospital…and in the meantime, I have to keep doing the same clean outs to keep him as cleaned out as possible.

Good times.