*Warning: If you don't like to hear about the functions of the digestive tract, I advise you to move on to whatever else you were going to do today.*
Here is the back story of why we have sent Lukas to SLC to see a GI specialist. Last year, we began to notice that Lukas would vomit randomly and complain that his tummy hurt. It gradually picked up frequency until he was vomiting almost once a week and complaining more often. I finally took him in to the doctor after months of trying different things to see if we could pinpoint what is causing this. They did a general blood allergy panel, which came back normal. Then, our family had a very small stomach virus. It was about 24 hours, and very minor. Pretty much just an upset stomach. When it was Lukas's turn to get it, it wasn't just a 24 hour virus. Lukas got violently ill for an entire month. We had a month of watching Lukas deteriorate slowly of what seemed like a violent stomach virus. Vomiting, diarrhea, pain, the works. No fever though. He was permanently set up in the living room with a throw up bowl and one of us with him all the time. If we went anywhere, we took the vomit bowl with us.
He'd vomit almost every single night, multiple times a night. I watched his fat stores melt away, and his tummy become distended and bloated. I took him to the doctor multiple times, and they just took tests that all came back normal. I was blown off again and again about sending Lukas to a specialist. The only thing that kept him out of the hospital was he would not stop drinking. He was always thirsty, and even though he'd eventually vomit most of what he drank that day, at least he was keeping hydrated. I was convinced this had nothing to do with a stomach virus. Maybe the little virus had set him off, but there was something much bigger going on.
When the sickness finally came to an end and he began to eat again, his tummy seemed to feel better and better over time. Even though his tummy appeared to feel better, I still felt that something was wrong. He would still complain of having a hurt tummy, and he wouldn't eat sometimes, but he wasn't vomiting anymore. So later, when Lukas vomited for a day and showed signs of being sick, I went to a different doctor terrified that we were going to have another bad spell (we didn't), and cried, begging to get a referral. I finally got one. What we went through last year with Lukas I never want to go through again, so if I could find out what is going on and treat it, then maybe we have a good chance of keeping him well.
OK. Now that you know the past, here is the present and the known future regarding my little boy.
I wasn't very thorough about the what the colonoscopy revealed in my earlier post. Yes, he has inflammation, a stretched out colon that has created extra loops, and swollen lymph nodes. What I didn't talk about was the bacteria overgrowth and the chronic gastritis that showed up in the biopsies. Mainly because I had no idea what they meant.
After finding out what the colonoscopy and endoscopy revealed, I sat on that information for a while and wrote down the questions that came to me. I finally figured I had enough questions so I called the doctor back to get the answers to my page long list. Among them were questions about what bacteria overgrowth and gastritis mean exactly and what symptoms would show up because of those conditions. I also asked if his colon would ever go back to normal, if the inflammation (colitis) can cause illnesses to last longer, and many others.
The doc told me that his colon would eventually get its tone back as long as we keep him from getting constipated again. If he gets constipated again, his colon will get stretched out again. He didn't express any concern about the stretching, except that it could cause things to move more slowly through his colon. Hence, we need to keep him regular as much as possible.
The gastritis means inflammation of the stomach. He said it's usually caused by too much acid in the stomach and the patient usually suffers from acid reflux. I asked what obvious symptoms I would see in Lukas and he said mainly pain in the upper chest. Lukas has never complained of hurting there, so I figured this particular condition could wait until we take care of the things that are causing him pain.
Bacteria overgrowth is too much bad bacteria in the colon. It can be caused by constipation, which leaves old stool in one spot for a while and a build up of that bacteria can happen. Yet another reason to keep him regular. So, this bacteria overgrowth can create gas, and therefore a bloated painful tummy. I've seen this lots of times in Lukas. This pain will keep him from eating, it will make him cry, and his tummy is hard and bloated.
The focal active colitis is still in the "I'm not sure what to do about that" stage. But, when Lukas's tummy is hurting, and it's not bloated or gassy, I'll ask him where it hurts and he always points to the upper portion of his tummy, right below his rib cage. The doc said this is where they found the colitis, so it is causing him pain as well. He did tell me that this colitis would not cause his illnesses to last longer than normal, unless it was a stomach virus. Then he could potentially have the virus for twice as long, but it would not last for a month. The colitis needs to be addressed because if it is not taken care of, or if it becomes a chronic condition, it could potentially turn into a more serious disease, like Crohn's disease. The doc said Lukas will need another colonoscopy in a year to determine if the inflammation has gone away, and if there are any other spots where the inflammation has cropped up.
So, based on all this information, we determined that we need to take care of the bacteria overgrowth first. We will put Lukas on an antibiotic for a period of time, followed by a probiotic to reset all the good bacteria in his colon. Then we will consider what to do about his inflammation. We don't know what is causing the inflammation, so this might take longer to figure out.
What does this have to do with how sick he got last year? I have no idea, and I don't really care. We found things that were wrong, things that are causing him pain, and we can do something about it. I am still terrified that he will get a stomach virus and we will be dealing with another month of wondering if we should take him to the hospital, but at least we are getting somewhere in the meantime. And I do have my referral now so I have a specialist to call if things get bad.
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