Poopocalypse 2.0

A few months ago, I touched on some issues that Alex has been having with his bowels. I'm not going to go into gory detail about it for a multitude of reasons, but suffice it to say that it is still an ongoing battle - and it's not fun for him or for me.

Today he had a follow up appointment with the pediatric GI doctor (who is AMAZING) and after discussing every possible scenario and idea, it was decided that he is going to undergo a colonoscopy on Thursday morning..... and they're also going to do the down-the-throat one (can't remember what it's called).

So, starting Wednesday, from the time he gets out of bed, he's not allowed to eat anything. It's Gatorade, popsicles, and jello only until after the procedure is done on Thursday - and for the kid who loves to eat even more than I do, this is going to be horrible. When he realized that he couldn't eat ANYTHING, he looked at me with a look of almost terror on his face, and in that moment I promised him that if he couldn't eat, neither would I.

It costs approximately $50 to prepare for
Poopocalypse 2.0.

So we went to the store after Scouts tonight and got what we needed. Luckily Gatorade was on sale so we got lots of that, but we were kind of limited on flavors for both that and the jello - nothing red, orange, or purple (we're going to separate out the popsicles). Lots of Miralax and some Dulcolax too. And pullups and wipes because I don't expect him to be able to control anything with what the doctor wants us to do to clean him out before the procedure.

We used a similar - but not quite so extreme - method to clean him out a few months ago, but unfortunately the effects were not long-lived. Honestly, we don't expect to find anything physically wrong with him, but we are attempting to rule out a physical cause for his issues so that we can better figure out how to deal with it and how to help him. He will be put under general anesthesia for this, but the entire procedure will take less than 30 minutes. He's been put under before and has always done very well - but it's still scary for both of us.

So, starting Wednesday morning, I might be a little crankier than usual - but it'll only be because I'm hungry. And stressed. And worried. But, this too shall pass - and hopefully it'll give us the answers that we need in order to pursue the best possible treatment.

And now, I'm going to go make finger jello, just because I can. And if I have to eat it, it's not going to be boring old jello in a bowl.




Note: Yes, I kept things vague as far as the "issues". There are a lot of different opinions floating around as to what is happening here, and for Alex's privacy I'm just not going to go into the specifics. I'm not thrilled about running tests like these on someone his age, but I discussed it at length with the specialist and we both feel that this is the best way to go at this point in time.