Results from scope and a new plan

Adela is recovering from her scope procedure this morning.  Right now, she’s sleeping in the room with Mommy.  Based on what they found, the plan has changed a bit.  Adela had, in the words of the GI doctor, “just horrible colitis” (inflamed colon) with some painful ulcers.  It’s not necessarily Crohn’s disease, however it’s close.  From the pictures taken from the scope, we now understand why Adela has been in such pain when going to the bathroom.  Because of the colitis, she’s going to be put on TPN (basically IV nutrition) to give her intestines time to rest and heal.  So that means no food of any kind (including even Elecare).  She can drink water.  We don’t know how long she’ll need to be on TPN for both her nutrition to return to normal and for her intestines to heal, however we’re looking at probably a minimum of two weeks.

One of the issues with TPN is that it can’t be given through a normal IV, so she had a tunneled central venous catheter inserted.  It’s a step above the PICC line we were talking about earlier this week.  There’s less of a chance of infection, it’s more secure than other types of central lines, and it’s more long-term.  One of the good things is that they can draw blood from it, so no more traditional draws.

I’ll update with more info later in the day as we know more.