A Pain in the Ass

I had a different post planned for today, but I can't think about much. I am tired and will probably fall asleep watching TV in the very near future.

Danny got up at 6 today and I never managed to go back to sleep with him like I usually do when he's up so early. Sam woke up and then we had to get ready to go to Danny's appointment at Children's Hospital.

How about instead of whatever else I had planned, we talk about my kid's poop again? I promise I won't do it too often, but today was a big day for Danny's butt, and a big pain in mine.

If you've been around a while, you know Danny's had some troubles with what is best described as a LAZY ass. Okay, maybe that's not very scientific, but he just doesn't poop on his own. Nothing really seems to help. Although we found out last week that the super expensive formula (Similac Alimentum) IS helping in some ways when we tried to switch back to regular formula and ended up with a situation that involved a lot of screaming and walnut sized rock poops and ended with me on Ebay buying a box of 9 cans of the super expensive formula. Oh well, at least in bulk I can save $10 a can.

As an aside - how ridiculous is it that I just saved $10 PER CAN (a bit less than 30%) on formula? What the hell makes a 16 oz can of formula worth $27? Just a week ago I received 2 16 oz cans of formula in the mail as a FREE SAMPLE. So, how can it possibly cost so much? Ugh.

Anyhow, back to the main issue. He doesn't poop. So, we had a barium enema with an X-ray to look for anything indicating Hirschsprung's Disease, and it looked normal. Our pediatrician told us that the results would determine whether we got transferred to the surgery clinic or the GI department at Children's Hospital because apparently there are no specialists in Bellingham? I dunno. So, after the results came back normal I was sort of surprised when they referred us to the surgery clinic, but thought that they must know what they were doing.

So, we made the appointment, arranged for Sam to go to Grandma's, and drove 2 hours to Seattle. For a 10 minute out-patient easy biopsy. With a surgeon who basically told us that he thinks there is a next-to-zero-percent chance that Danny has Hirschsprung's, which is apparently the ONLY reason for the biopsy. Without any of the other symptoms, and with a normal rectal exam, he'd be in a VERY small group if he ended up having it. No more advice. No more discussion. He's a surgeon, not a GI doc or pediatrician, so it's not his job to help us any further really.

I don't get it. Danny's pediatrician knew the results of the barium enema X-rays. So, WHY did he refer us to the surgeon? I don't know. Why did they not say maybe we should do the biopsy to just rule it out, but hey, while you're down there, why not see a GI doctor? I don't know. Why did I basically just drive for four hours and navigate a hospital and wait for 30 minutes to most likely find out nothing that is of any consequence to Danny and his problems? I DON'T KNOW.

Now, if they do not find ganglion cells? And it turns out he has Hirschsprung's with almost no symptoms indicating it? I will eat my words. BUT, more likely, I will just let this go and then try to figure out who will take care of Sam and when Justin can take ANOTHER day off and we can pay for ANOTHER appointment to go to Seattle to a doc who might actually be able to help.

There IS one other option. Just stop worrying about it, give him a suppository when he gets really fussy and starts spitting up a lot, and wait for it to just happen on it's own. In all reality, Sam had suppositories regularly for his first year, and he poops on his own just fine now. Maybe we should just forget about all of this and wait and see. Who knows?