Deja Vu

Tomorrow will be exactly one year to the day that Logan had his exploratory surgery.  It's crazy to look back on that day and think how little Olin and I knew at the time.  We had been parents for just ten days when our pediatrician told us that Logan needed to go to Children's Healthcare because he could not keep anything down and was basically puking up bile.  I can't even remember how many tests they ran on our sweet little man before a surgeon came in and basically said that she had to perform emergency surgery or else.  The doctors didn't have an explanation of why he couldn't eat, thus the "exploratory" surgery began.  I think the whole procedure took about 2-3 hours.  Luckily, our incredible families came as soon as they got our messages.  I can only imagine what we must have sounded like: probably like thirteen year old kids scared out of their minds.
 
Looking back on this event 365 days later, this part of the story still isn't funny (I thought maybe it would be as time passed, but...nope).   After three hours of waiting and trying hopelessly to think of something other than Logan under the knife...the surgeon came out to tell us some news.   We huddled around her as she stated that he was doing okay.  She said, "I snipped a couple of bands, but his intestines we're really rotated like we thought."  And then with a smile and sort of a laugh, she added, "But at least I took his appendix out!"  Seriously?  I wanted to hit her.  Just wait though.  It gets better.  As she continued to run us through the operation, her cell phone rang.   No problem.  I'm sure doctors must have to have it with them at all times for emergencies.  So she answered the phone, but it was not a medical emergency at all.  It was American Express telling her that someone had been using her debit card.  Her eyes widened like she couldn't believe her ears and proceeded to stay on the phone with American Express for at least ten minutes to discuss the purchases made her stolen debit card.  Meanwhile, mine and Olin's families were in complete shock.  She had left us in the middle of explaining how our ten day old son was recuperating from major surgey to take this call about her freaking debit card.  I looked around tenatively.  Who was going to knock her out first?  Looking back, I'm really surprised Olin didn't!  Oh, and to make all of this worse...shehad glitter eye shadow on her eyes.  Now, I don't know much about medicine and surgery, but something tells me that glitter in the operating room probably isn't the best idea.  Geez, I can't even stand to get glitter cards in the mail.  That stuff gets everywhere.  To this day, I'm convinced Logan probably has some shiny silver glitter pieces floating around in his body!

The reason I was reflecting on Jan. 21, 2010 is because tomorrow Jan. 21, 2011, Logan is going to be back in the operating room having a full thickness rectal biopsy performed.  Sounds fun, right?  About 50% of the kids with MWS have something called Hirschprung's disease that affects bowel activity and basically means that part of the intestine does not function properly and needs to be removed.  At the time of Logan's exploratory surgery, we didn't have the MWS diagnosis, so Hirschprung's was never considered.  However, in the last year, I can honestly say we've probably only cleaned 50 dirty diapers.  Logan gets backed up to say the least.  Without some assisstance, he could easily not go for ten days!  Because of our knowledge of his syndrome and his patterns, we've been trying to find out if he has Hirschprungs since late November.  They have already done two biopsies, but the results were not conclusive to say one way or another if he had the disease.  So, tomorrow's surgery should (and better be) the last step in finding this out.  We are optimistic because he has been going on his own more lately with a few daily "poop scoops" aka Benefiber.  We have also figured out that it is possible to scare the shit out of him.  Literally.  I swear...I have witnesses.  Whenever we talk about an upcoming procedure or "threaten" that a suppository is in store soon if he doesn't poop, within minutes, he's making something come out.  It's almost like he says "okay okay, I'll do it already.  Just don't make me do that other stuff!"  It's pretty funny.  You've never seen two people get more excited about poop than Olin and me.  We fight to change the dirty ones (well, we fight more to watch the other person change it).  It's very ironic that exactly a year from last year's crazy extended hospital stay, we will be back at the same place.  Luckily, we know we will be back home in a matter of hours versus almost a week last year.  Logan is such a fighter though.  He doesn't cry anymore at his shots.  In fact, I think he gives the nurses the middle finger when they start to poke at him : )  He's very skeptical of all doctors.   I don't blame him though.  I would be too.  Keep Logan and his little bum in your prayers tomorrow.