Thursday, February 25, 2010

GI plans

It looks like we will plan to do a fluoroscopy study late next month to find out what is going on inside Peter's GI tract. The fistula continues to put out more fluid than it used to, even with the feeds less than half of what they had been when we went up to Boston last time.

A fluoroscopy study on Peter is never easy because he has several places where the contrast fluid leaks out after it is put into his G-tube. The leakage of fluid into his dressing and into his ostomy bags then makes it impossible to see what is going on inside. I am not sure how we are going to work this out, but hope if it involves the removal of ostomy bags during the procedure that we are able to keep the PICC line clean!! We've managed it before, and with many prayers will hopefully manage to keep the line clean again. Dr. Kamin and Dr. Jennings will be there for the one to two hour procedure, and possibly Dr. Kim as well. Dr. Jennings and Dr. Kim are the surgeons who are familiar with Peter's anatomy.

Peter is still on TPN 7 nights a week, as we can't advance his feeds to where they had been before. We are managing to keep his sodium levels stable though, only needing to add a little 1/2 normal saline here and there when his outputs exceed his new baseline.

Please keep Peter in your prayers as we sort out his fistula issues. We are praying for test results that show us that it is time to close the fistula, as well as the doctors finding that it would not be as difficult to surgically close as feared.