Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Crohn’s It Is

Sawyer is feeling much better today.  He no longer has the uncomfortable Ng tube and he no longer has to have the nasty solution of GoLYTELY which made him extremely nauseated and caused severe stomach cramping (not to mention the awful clearing of his colon).  Sawyer had a beyond miserable night, but His  mercies are new each morning.  We praise God for the mercies He has poured upon Sawyer today.  No more nausea, controlled pain with good meds, the freedom and ability to drink and eat, plus a TV with Sony X-Box and DVD’s, too.  Lavish luxuries for our mighty warrior on this day.

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Sawyer had his colonoscopy and endoscopy this morning, and it’s official, he has Crohn’s Disease.  Sawyer’s gastroenterologist wasn’t able to insert the scope further than the sigmoid colon (lowest portion of colon) due to the severe ulcerations.  He felt that the camera would perforate the colon due to the continuous pattern of very deep lesions throughout the sigmoid colon (which have caused the colon wall to be extremely thin at the sight of each ulcer), so he was unable to view the rest (majority) of the colon.  Sawyer also has has two severe protruding rectal fistulas with ulcerations and a secondary infection, which is the cause of the majority of Sawyer’s intense pain.  The limited findings/viewings confirmed what the GI doc suspected yesterday—Crohn’s Disease.

 

Photo warning—if you prefer not to see the interior of Sawyer’s colon, skip the following photo.  Sawyer gave me permission to post a photo of his colon, which illustrates the lesions/ulcers (white spots in the photos) as well as the inflammation (red spots in the photos).  We have lots of photos, but I just took a snapshot of the photo printout the gastroenterologist gave us.  The photo below shows one small section of Sawyer’s sigmoid colon.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sawyer will also have another test done tomorrow that is similar to a barium swallow study, but it will test for blockage and inflammation in the small intestine since it couldn’t be seen with a scope.  Crohn’s disease attacks the entire GI tract, so the GI doc needs to figure out if anything else is going on.

 

Sawyer will begin IV antibiotics to treat infection.  The infectious disease doctor will visit with us later today.  The gastroenterologist took several biopsies to send off for further testing, and pending those results, the current plan is to begin Remicade infusion treatments.  There are several options available for treatment/management of Crohn’s, but because Matt (my hubby/Sawyer’s daddy) has responded so well to Remicade when all other options failed, we believe this is the best route to try first with Sawyer.  It also works quickly, which is vital to get Sawyer back to health.

 

Sawyer’s lab work is wacky, too, so various specialists are reviewing those.  His inflammatory markers are beyond high (3.0 is considered high while Sawyer’s are at 16.4), but that goes with the Crohn’s diagnosis.  There’s a variety of other wonky findings/indicators that are being investigated.  That will take some time.

 

Sawyer will remain in the hospital until Thursday at minimum.  If all goes well, he will be able to begin his Remicade infusion treatments Thursday.  He may get a PICC line today for various reasons, but the hospital’s pediatric doctor assigned to Sawyer is investigating with other specialists to determine if that is necessary.

 

Even with all of these findings, we know that our Abba Father is in control.  He is still the same God that He was yesterday and will be the same tomorrow.  He is a loving and gracious God, and He has a plan in all of this.  He doesn’t make mistakes, and He formed Sawyer in His image.  We trust wholeheartedly in our King of kings.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.

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