Esophagogastroduodenoscopy and Colonoscopy

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy has 26 letters in it. That is about as many emotions as we have gone through these last 2 days! Let me explain.

A Little History: Back on January 20th we went to see Dr. Fuchs, at Children's. He is a gastroenterologist. Back in July 2008, Hannah was having some tummy troubles--diarrhea and some discomfort. So, at her Rheumatology visit at the time, we talked to the doctor about it and she did a blood test. The test came back showing she had a positive marker for IBD, or Inflammatory Bowel Disease. At the time, we didn't do anything with this because she said that this didn't mean Hannah definitely had IBD and she did not have any blood in her stool. She did mention that we may have to see a GI doctor in the future.

So, over the months, Hannah's stool has been checked several times and back at the end of the year, blood was detected in it. At the time the Rheumatologist kind of thought it could be due to the prolonged use of her Naproxen that she has taken for about 3 years for her JRA (this can be a side-effect). She wanted to switch her to Celebrex. We thought that since we were so close to tapering off the Naproxen anyway (this June if she's still doing well with her JRA), we just kind of hated the thought of changing meds and worrying about new side-effects. So, we just kept checking the stool and talking with her pediatrician. She'd been having some more diarrhea. So, we decided that we would go ahead and see a GI doctor to see what he thought.

January 20th - We go see Dr. Fuchs (GI). First of all his nurse came and talked to us and asked us a ton of questions about Hannah. After that she began to talk to us about the possibility that Hannah may have Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative Colitis. WHOA! That was extremely hard to hear. I don't know a ton about Crohn's but I know that it is not a good thing to have. When Dr. Fuchs came in, he told us that her Naproxen could be causing the blood in her stool too. The best way to tell would be to do upper and lower endoscopies. Kris and I both were fine with this because we really want to know what is going on, if anything. However, ever since we have been dreading February 12th--the day of the tests.

February 11th - Bowel Clean-out. All I can say is that I was SOOOOO proud of my Hannah. My mom came up to help me with this and with Lincoln. She was a HUGE help! Thank you so much Mom!!! We started at 8:00 a.m. She had to drink 6 oz of clear fluids every 30 minutes with every other one having Miralax mixed in it to make her go to the bathroom. She also had to have 3 doses of Ex-lax chocolate squares along the way. She was pretty cooperative except for about 2 times when I gave her apple juice with the Miralax in it. She is not a huge fan of apple juice. So, I had to bride her with a new Disney movie to get her to get it all down. Most of the time she had sweet tea. All in all, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. she drank over 84 oz of fluid!!!! She was such a trooper. She was also really good about the whole bathroom thing. She even thought it was funny. :)

This is what she did ALL day!

Mom and I couldn't believe the good mood she was in most of the day, even with having to drink so much and go to the bathroom so much.

Through this whole thing, she only really knew that she was going to the doctor to have a test and that she had to have her tummy cleaned out. We didn't tell her anything else. I really wrestled with this because she is so smart and can pick up on things really well. I know she sensed something big was going to happen. I know she was anxious.

February 12th - This morning we had to be at Children's at 5:30 for her procedures at 7:30. She slept with us last night because she had vomited a couple of times right before bed and I didn't want my mom to have to deal with that if she did it some more during the night. Luckily she slept really well. Hannah knows when we go to Children's and it is both her Daddy and I with her, that something is going on. She was quiet the whole car ride there. I was feeling very nervous and scared. I'm sure Kris was too. Honestly the part that is the hardest is wondering what she is feeling. I absolutely hate the thought of her being scared and it is hard for me to imagine what must have been going on in her little mind.

Hannah gets VERY shy and refuses to talk to any doctors or nurses when they ask her questions. We try to encourage her to, but usually don't have any luck. There were numerous people that came into the room to check her vitals, talk to us about what was going to happen, and do different things. I think this made her even more nervous especially when they talked about her being asleep. When they weren't in the room and she was playing with her Daddy on his iPhone Whiteboard, she was smiling and happy. But when someone would come in, her demeanor would change. Here she was surrounded by all this medical stuff and doctors. I know she was getting very nervous and scared and it just broke my heart.

When they were finally ready to take her back to get started, they wheeled her out in the hall on her bed and I bent down to give her a hug and tell her I loved her. At this point, she was mad and hurled the stuffed bunny rabbit, that she was planning on taking in with her, several feet away. Then she started to cry and held her arms out to us. She was so upset. I lost it. I think that was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I'm her Mommy and I had to leave her when she wanted me. We knew we had to leave quickly or it would be worse. So, I went to the bathroom and just bawled.

Luckily the procedures only lasted about 45 minutes. So, we finally got to talk to Dr. Fuchs. We were very impressed with him (and pretty much everyone else there at Children's). He was so soft spoken and seemed to really care. He said she was doing fine and would be waking up shortly. He explained to us what he did. In the upper one, he showed us a diagram of the area they were testing--the esophagus and stomach. He had a number by all the places where he took a picture and also took a biopsy. Then there was an actual picture of each of the places as well and he explained what he saw in each picture. This was really neat. The only thing that he saw was a spot in the stomach that was kind of raised and bumpy. He said this could be gastritis--an inflammation of the stomach. However, the only real way to tell is with the biopsy. With the lower scope he went over the same things with the colon. He didn't see anything that looked abnormal.

So, bottom line. He felt pretty good about things, but could not rule out Chrone's or anything yet. The real results will come with the biopsies in about 2 weeks.

Relief. Relief when we saw her. She was okay and not screaming mad like the last time she had anesthesia. She was pretty out of it still but was wanting to go home I think. She perked up when we went to the gift shop and let her pick out something special. She picked a jewelry box that she could decorate and spent most of the day today working on it or carrying it around. She loves it!!

Afterwards we also went to Wal-Mart, where she got to pick out 2 new movies. She chose The Rescuers and Barbie and the Three Muskateers. She watched each movie a couple of times today. She deserved it!!!

I know I've written a novel here, but I wanted to remember this day and all its details. We have a remarkable daughter. She makes us so proud. While we HATE to see her in any kind of pain or discomfort, we would do ANYTHING to help her. We thank everyone for the prayers, messages, texts, and calls. They really meant alot.

Most of all, I thank God for hearing our prayers, for giving us peace and comfort, and for giving us this very special little girl.


Last emotions of the day - Excitement and Happiness! Hannah is going on a date with her Daddy tomorrow! You should have seen her face as she was being put to bed!