news finally!

We were SO pleased to get a call this morning at 9 to hear that Connor was on his way down to get his tests started. We were told yesterday that it might be later this afternoon before anything got started, so we were so happy. Mom, Bryan and I raised our glasses of coffee and milk this morning at Denny's and toasted 'poop'. :) So, I'm just going to cut and paste my mom's analysis of what the radiologist had to tell us after he read the results:

Radiologist Dr. Hoeskstra diagnosed Hirschsprung’s syndrome from the barium enema test. This is not a blockage of the bowel, rather a portion of the large intestine does not have innervation (nerve cells), so kind of like a dead spot in the bowel. The diagnosis will be confirmed with a biopsy today – will be soon – done by the surgeon. They will insert an endoscopic tube up the rectum to the suspect area of the bowel and remove a portion of the intestinal wall. If there are no nerve cells there, the diagnosis is confirmed and the nurse thought surgery would be scheduled for Monday. They plan on starting hyperalimentation (IV fluids with vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals and sugar) later today, then lipids sometime tomorrow.

2 surgical options were explained:

1. Colostomy: they bring the last working portion of the bowel out through the abdominal wall and Connor wears a bag for 6 to 12 months. At that time, they reattach the bowel inside and he leads a normal life.

2. Pull through surgery: They remove the bad bowel and reattach immediately – no need for the colostomy.

Option 1 is the more usual surgical procedure. There is no way of telling which procedure they’ll do until they open him up on Monday and do multiple biopsies to determine where the section of bad bowel is. If it’s possible to remove it and reattach both ends of good bowel, they’ll do the pull through surgery. Let’s keep the prayers going for this option! But in any event, the radiologist said this is a FIXABLE thing and we should be focusing on that. There are many cases up here that are not this fixable… Will keep you informed of biopsy results – should know them sometime today.

So glad mom was there to remember and understand all of this, so like she says, we just wait now for the biopsy to occur and then get the results from that.

The BEST part of the day today, is that Bryan and I both got to hold him. It was SO amazing to hold him and cuddle with him, we love him so much. We probably each got to hold him for at least 20 minutes, we just tell him all about anything and everything. Who he's met, who he's about to meet (warning him about a FEW people :)), when Ponch is going to start creating lists for him, etc. Bryan was talking to him about golf already, wasn't sure he should go with Uncle Aaron and Joe because he might come home saying bad words...and if he goes with Ponch (okay, for those of you who have no idea who this is...it's my dad, Grandpa Loula, long story), he'll come back with 8 new tricks about every aspect of the game, each one contradicting the other...(love you, Dad!). It was just great timing that he was born the day the Master's started...maybe it's a sign of what's to come.

Alright, my neverending post will conclude with a few photos. Thanks to all!! PRAY for the pull through option surgery, but, if it's the other one, we're okay with that too...he's so tough and strong, he'll get through it.