This picture is of Jacob being prepared for his colonoscopy and upper endoscopy on April 22, 2013. In March I noticed that Jacob had been losing weight...looking way skinny, was tired quite a bit, and complained of yucky poops. I wasn't sure what was going on, but decided to take him in to see his pediatrician. The dr. was concerned with the weight loss, so he sent us to the lab for blood work. I received a call the next week that no mother wants to get. His inflammatory markers in his colon were elevated and he was anemic. I didn't really know what this meant, but knew it was not normal, and we were sent to see a specialist at Banner Desert. I was nervous, not knowing what was happening or what to expect or what Jacob was going to have to deal with, whether it was life-threatening or not. The gastroenterologist was great. She gave him an exam, took his complete history, and after checking lab results, let us know that we were probably dealing with colitis, or Crohn's Disease. She ordered the colonoscopy and upper endoscopy to get the correct diagnosis and see the extent or damage of the disease. This picture is from the 22nd at Banner Desert Hospital. I took the day off of work and we spent about 4.5 hours at the hospital. Jacob did well for the procedures, he went under general anesthesia and didn't have any problems. I should say that the Sunday before the procedures was hellish, in that he couldn't eat anything, and was taking two different forms of laxatives every 2 hours to clean him out. Ugh! but he did well with that as well...not complaining once. The doctor came to the waiting room after the procedure and told us that it is Crohn's Disease. Poor kid. This is a disease with no cure. But on the bright side, we caught it early and with the correct medicine, he will live a full life. The doctor also ordered an MRI for the next week to make sure there wasn't any other damage in his small intestines. That was probably the worst of all these doctors visits and procedures because they didn't tell us he would need to drink 2 full bottles of yucky liquid in a 40 minute period to prepare him for the MRI. we almost weren't able to do it, the poor kid was gagging and miserable. We met with the doctor on May 3rd for our followup appt. He will be on steroids for a month to get the inflammation down in his intestines, while we wait for the Crohn's medicine to do it's job, because it takes a few months for that to build up in his system and then we pray that the medicine works. The doctor said some kids respond well and she sees them once a year, and others don't do so great. He is already up 4 pounds and has an appetite, so i hope we continue this well. Our next appt is in June where he will be weaned off the steroids and put up to a full dose of the Crohn's medicine. Love this kid to death and am so glad we know now what the problem is so we can help him start to feel better.
