Things

Rachel and I spent the day down in Birmingham, AL last Thursday. I had originally made the appointment six months ago so we could go to the Down syndrome clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Then, starting over a month ago, Rachel started to have some really disturbing stool issues. At first, we thought she had caught something viral. Then, it continued for over two weeks and I took her to the pediatrician. He took a swab and sent it off and found nothing. I called the doctor and said "This is not normal. We need to do something else" and he had a bag full of vials for us to pick up, fill up and take to the lab. Those results came back without any answers besides it's not viral and it's not bacterial.

At that point, it was time to see a GI doctor. I chose to take her to the GI doctor down in Birmingham that my son had been to when he was diagnosed with MSPI. I made the appointment the same day as the clinic appointment. I was really hoping while we were waiting those two weeks that the issue would magically clear up. But it hadn't. After taking a very detailed history of Rachel, the GI doctor decided to take some more stool samples to test for some different things, to take some blood work and an x-ray of her belly. Right now we are waiting for those results. Depending on what those results say (or don't say), we'll know more on how we are to proceed.

This has been very difficult thing for me to handle. Something is wrong but right now I can't do anything about it. Stephen has suggested cutting out foods in her diet to see if that is the issue but we can't. If we do that, any of the tests that may need to be done and the outcomes that we may receive would be compromised. I want her to be diagnosed correctly. I don't want to guess and be wrong and have to start all over again. So we wait. We should have results at the end of the week. Until then, I'll keep stocking up on stain remover and Destin and praying this is something simple to overcome.