I suppose we should just get to the Second Visit that wasn’t
Covid. Rip the band-aid off and be done
with it.
So, to set the stage here, I’m going to first tell you that
I’m going to use the acronym “BP” every time I want to say Bloody Poop. Yes, I wrote Bloody Poop. So that should give you an idea of where
we’re headed.
In the early part of last year before Covid began, Coleman
started to have an issue with BP. It
wasn’t the first time. He’s had BP
before – maybe 2 or 3 times – each time lasting roughly 3 weeks. On each occasion, we visited our pediatrician
and GI specialist, each time had a litany of blood and stool tests, and each
time the BP simply resolves on its own.
It’s really nice BP like that. J
But this time, the BP wasn’t so nice. It started in January and we followed the
same steps we had in the past: multiple
visits to the doctor and multiple blood and stool tests. Tests came back negative for nearly
everything they tested. But the BP
didn’t go away. As the weeks progressed
so did the BP, until Coleman couldn’t manage the day without an accident,
something he had never done before. The
amount of blood we were seeing was really concerning, and finally, his team
decided to do a Colonoscopy. Except the
first available slot was 8 weeks away.
Coleman grew pale and looked sickly, but the doctor continued to assure us
it was ok to wait for the procedure. And
then along came Covid, and they cancelled it two weeks before we were to have
it. And the BP were still going strong.
We wondered how Coleman could possibly last like this, and we
tossed around the idea of going the E.R.
But we were perhaps even more terrified of Covid, so we stayed put,
praying things would be ok. And then,
suddenly and miraculously, the BP stopped, almost three months after it had
begun.
The reprieve was short however, and toward the end of the
summer the BP was back, this time with a vengeance. The bleeding was far worse and within two
weeks, Coleman was vomiting and we were on our way to the E.R. It was a stroke of good luck that Coleman’s
GI doctor was on call, and without hesitation, put him on the list for an
emergency colonoscopy and endoscopy. We spent almost a week there, and left with a
diagnosis of Colitis with intense inflammation in his colon. He was put on a three month round of
Prednisone to get things under control (sidebar: prednisone blocks the
absorption of insulin so it was awesome that Coleman’s pancreas had decided to
stop working a month earlier). The
Prednisone worked perfectly but only a couple of weeks after we stopped it, the
BP were back. We tried a couple of different alternatives, none of which
worked, and we ended back on the Prednisone three times since. We
have finally decided to go with the GI doctor’s recommendation to start
Remicade. It’s an infusion that Coleman
will ultimately get every 8 weeks, after a more frequent build up. He
starts next month and fingers are crossed that it’s the solution he needs.
Ok, that’s all the bad news I have, honest. And despite how awful it sounds, Coleman is
really doing well. He’s the strongest
kid ever. The rest of us are good here
too – Billy’s constant jokes keep us laughing – and we strive to maintain a
positive outlook. This latest hiccup will
not break us or Coleman – we’re all way tougher than this.
Ok, now, onto happy news.
Next update will be all rainbows and unicorns.
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