Marcella Update

Hi all,

I thought I'd give you all an update on Marcella. That picture is her right after she was born, but I think it really shows how she feels about all of the tests they've been doing on her.
We had a good talk with the GI Specialist, Doctor Molly O'Gorman, today. She wears a Lance Armstrong "Livestrong" bracelet. Yesterday she made a comment that Marcella's hematocrit was a bit low, and I said, "Well at least we know she hasn't been doping." She got the joke, and we all had good laugh. They're not sure what's taking place within the Bowels of Marcella (get it? "within the bowels of mercy" ha ha...funny!), but have given us some options.

They found a heart murmur yesterday when they were examining her in the ER. She said that if her heart has to work extra due to its shunting some blood over to the left half instead of into the correct arteries, (ecocardiogram) that might be a problem, but she's not sure because she isn't a cardiologist, so they're probably going to do an ecocardiogram tomorrow. It's pretty unlikely it'll have any bearing, but since she's not too familiar with it, they're going to do it just to be safe. The heart murmur doesn't impact the distension of her stomach (bloating),either. The distention is their primary concern right now. Dr. O'Gorman thinks that if she can get the swelling to go down, she'll start gaining weight right away.

She had a colonoscopy this morning, as well as a barium enema. We don't have results for either of those tests yet. They think she might have a bowel obstruction, something similar to a kinked hose. That could be causing the swelling...but it's not totally obvious in the x-ray's they've done. She could also have a "simulated" bowel obstruction...I think that's the word they used. But....usually with a bowel obstruction there aren't any bowel movements, and Marcella has normal bowel movements...but they're not ruling anything out right now.

They said it might be Hirschsprung's Disease. That's a disease where the nerves in the large intestine that initiate parastalsis (ganglion cells) are not present in parts of the large intestine. That leads to constipation and other complications. But Marcella isn't constipated, so it's probably not Hirschsprung's Disease, but they're not going to rule it out yet. In order to determine if it is, they have to go in and obtain a cell sample with a biopsy. I don't think it'll come down to this. Her blood was a bit anemic, and her hematocrit was a bit low (is that the same thing? I think so), which is a sign of Hirschsprung's. But there't the whole constipation issue that really throws a wrench into this.

Another possibility is Marcella is allergic to milk, Kanien's breast milk included That would be the easiest thing...they're waiting for the tests on that to come back, I think. Then we'd just have to feed her $20.00 shots of formula and she'd be fine. They also said she might have an abnormally high amount of bacteria in her intestines that is eating all of the sugars and turning them to gas...which would explain her failure to thrive and her distention.

As you can see, they're still pretty stumped on what's going on. Hopefully we'll find out some more tomorrow. I'll update this again if I have time. I'm currently dealing with full-time work, full-time student, Grandma Noni, Marcella in the hospital, Grizzlie's hockey games (I help run a camera and the Jumbo Tron there...but don't have another game for a week or so), and the constant humming in my brain that is just a part of being a genius. Also, either Kanien or I will post some pictures of Marcella in the hospital either tonight or tomorrow night, so keep checking back. We really appreciate the phone calls and prayers and other support you guys are giving us. We love you and think of you often. We're especially grateful that Dad put us on the right track early, and had the sense to send us to see Doctor Kramer. And we're grateful that Doctor Kramer sent us to Primary Children's, so we can get this resolved.

Until next time, this is Reading Rainbow....

Butterfly in the sky......
I can fly twice as high....
Take a look,
It's in a book,
On Reading Rainbow....Reading Raiiiiinbowwwwww!!!!

(please don't ask why that came into my head just now)