June 30, 2011

For those that haven't heard the details, here's a synopsis. We took Rory to urgent care on Monday because her stomach was distended and she wasn't eating or passing anything. We had been cautioned by the pediatrician to monitor such things when we left the hospital because Rory was a little slow in taking her first poop. While rare, they were concerned she showed a couple of signs of Hirschsprungs disease (I'll let you google that).

From urgent care she went to the ER, and from the ER to the NICU. They stuck a tube down her nose all the way to her stomach to siphon out everything and to relieve the bloating. They've had her on an IV of sugar water (dextrose) and she hasn't eaten since Monday. Today, they started supplementing her IV with nutritional fluids of some sort.

Tuesday she got a barium enema and x-ray to look for a blockage, but that didn't show anything obvious. Today, they took a biopsy of her large intestine to conclusively determine Hirschsprungs or not. We should get results tomorrow. If it is Hirschsprungs, then it's correctible via surgery, the severity of which is dependent on the location of the problem on the large intestine. If it's not Hirschsprungs, then we are back to square-one in trying to understand the problem. Meanwhile, Rory's stomach is returning to normal and she currently appears fine except for being really, really hungry. But we don't know if she'll just bloat up again once we start feeding her, so she'll likely be in the hospital for several more days regardless of the biopsy result.

Reese and Riley are well and having fun at their grandparents house for now. Christine and I are staying at our new best friends house - you know him too, he's the world famous Ronald McDonald! The RMH organization must be one of the most well known, but under-appreciated charities out there. Based on what I've seen, they provide a tremendous amount of support to relieve many burdens, big and small, from the families of sick kids. Kids that are in a lot more trouble than our Rory. So next time you're at Micky Dee's (you know you eat there!), toss your change in the box next to the register because it really is a worthy cause.