My own little Buddha

During the first two months of Clyde's life, we noticed that his abdomen at times appeared somewhat enlarged. As new parents, we dismissed our concerns as overreactions, especially since he ate well and had regular bowel movements. The morning of his blessing at church, however, it became evident that something was definitely wrong; he was very bloated, vomiting bile and lethargic, so we called the next morning to make an appointment with the doctor. His pediatrician walked into the exam room, saw his Buddha belly, and immediately made arrangements for us to go across the street to the hospital for a variety of tests. This was the point at which I barely maintained any composure - thank goodness Chuck was there to be level-headed and rational.

An ultrasound early on ruled out tumors and other physical obstructions, but a barium enema test pointed strongly to Hirschsprung's disease (yeah, we'd never heard of it either). We returned to the pediatrician's office where Dr. Schaffer briefly explained the diagnosis: the ganglion cells in the large intestine that contract to move everything along (think conveyor belt) had not developed fully in Clyde's body, so everything was getting backed up. When enough pressure built up, things were pushed through and that's why we hadn't noticed any long stretches between bowel movements. We were then sent back to have Clyde admitted to the hospital for the night. There we met with Dr. Curnow, a pediatric surgeon who has served as Clyde's 'Hirschsprung's specialist' ever since. He explained that a pull-through surgery was needed to remove the affected portion of the large intestine, but that before that could happen, Clyde's colon needed to be cleared out and return to normal size. We stayed overnight and learned how to do the necessary treatments (details would be in poor taste, trust me) that I would continue at home for six weeks until his surgery in December. Despite a rocky time for Clyde pre-surgery (he was only allowed Pedialyte, no milk, for the last few hours before surgery and was NOT a happy baby), and a rocky time for me during surgery (five hours in a waiting room while your three and a half month old is operated on is WRETCHED), everything went very smoothly. We stayed in the hospital for three days for recovery and went home just in time for Christmas!

(Ridiculously silly sidenote that still riles me up: one mid-morning after the surgery, Clyde and I were both asleep in his hospital room and Chuck hadn't arrived for the day yet, members of the Boise State football team came to the pediatric floor to visit the kids and sign autographs and such, but the St. Luke's coordinator DIDN'T WANT TO WAKE US UP! AHHHH! I can't believe we missed out on that, just two weeks before their awesome win at the Fiesta Bowl. Whatev, I'm mostly over it . . . )

Since the surgery, Clyde has mostly done very well and we've been able to stop the at-home treatments. In March of this year, however, he became very dehydrated and backed up as a result of a stomach bug (turned out to be rotavirus, which they now vaccinate against) so he was hospitalized for three days while they stabilized his fluid levels with an IV and worked to get his colon back to size. Thankfully that occurred two and a half weeks before Will was born instead of after!

So, this brings us to our adventure today; Clyde got another stomach bug this week and woke up this morning (after a night of diarrhea and vomiting) with a big, rock-hard abdomen. We went in to the pediatrician's office (Chuck had worked all night, so my mom got to be my helper) and he sent us for an x-ray. After consulting with Dr. Curnow and getting the x-ray results, we decided that I would just resume treatments here at home but let them know if Clyde wasn't improving. The x-ray actually showed the same level of distention as the x-ray from March, but this time Clyde is chugging Gatorade like a champ, so dehydration isn't a risk. He's been such a darling boy today, as has poor, somewhat neglected baby Will. Chuck and I are, of course, very grateful for our supportive families (thanks for pinch-hitting today, Mom!), excellent insurance (x-rays are not cheap), and the fact that Clyde's condition is very managable and shouldn't greatly affect his life or future.