What's going on with Isaac? [Part 4]

{photo from last month's visit to the daffodil fields}

Hello, friends~

Thank you to those of you who have followed up to see how Isaac is doing.

If you're confused at the title of this post and need to catch up, I've been chronicling this journey here on the blog.  You can click on these links to catch up: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Thank you for any of you who have been praying for my boy.  I feel so blessed.  I have told Isaac that there are people all over the nation praying for him.  The other day I was telling him that this is one of the amazing things about being part of God's family: that God's people (who do not even know him!) are praying for him, simply because you believe in God, and believe that He loves us and hears our prayers, and that you genuinely care about him because you DO love Jesus.  Thank you.  Isaac is thankful, too.

So.... our appointment was Monday afternoon with a gastroenterologist.  Isaac had been doing pretty well.  Quick update on his symptoms:

Joints: Day 11 of joint pain.  In the days leading up to his appointment, his pain had decreased for sure; he was moving easily.  He is always in pain to some degree, and the pain seems to travel around his joints, sometimes concentrated in a knee or his wrists or his ankles or arms, but overall, the pain was less.  The anti-inflammatory pills (Naproxen) the ER doctors had prescribed were helping.  He had even gone outside-- twice!  Once to sit on the trampoline and another time to try to play baseball in the yard with the other kids.  (That didn't last long.)

Hives: His hives remain.  Day 14 of the hives.  The itching has gone way down (thank you, God!) but the rash crops up somewhere on his body (usually chest, stomach or his legs or arms) each day, and during the night he'll end up itching.  We've been giving him Benadryl every four hours.


Stomach issues: We're about six weeks in to his stomach issues, now.  His stomach had recently been worse again, several trips to the bathroom and the evening before our appointment, blood in his stool.  [I think I forgot to mention this in the earlier posts, but that night that I began to be concerned about his joint pain and called my friend Michelle; the night before we made the initial doctor's appointment with his pediatrician, she had asked me to ask him if he'd had blood in his stool.  This is several weeks into his diarrhea, mind you.  And he told me yes.  Just a little something he'd forgotten to mention to me all those weeks.  He said maybe 50 % of the time he was seeing some blood.]  Anyway, since then the blood had been much less frequent, but now it was back again.

Sore throat: Six weeks of a fairly persistent sore throat.  Some days he'll say it's fine, other days he'll say it's really bad; hurts to swallow, and sometimes will complain of a "bile-ish" taste back there.  The doctors haven't seen redness or spots, and seem puzzled that his throat is sore at all.

Appetite:  His appetite has decreased significantly.  Most days he eats very little, (and will say "I just don't feel hungry."  This from a boy who LOVES flavors and food and loves sitting down to a home-cooked meal.)  Some days he seems to have a huge appetite and wants to eat, and tries to eat normally, but cannot.  He gets full quickly.

* * *

So, back to our appointment. It was a relatively quick appointment, and after the doctor asked questions and listened to how this has all unfolded, he said "there's a lot of gray, meaning that there's no clear answer.  Every doctor seems to be puzzled that there's no stomach pain, that he hasn't had any fever throughout this process, and that he hasn't lost weight.  And no one seems to have any clue about why his joints are acting up.

He mentioned "the worst case" being either Crohn's or Colitis, or perhaps some benign polyps in his colon, but said he couldn't know unless he went in and did a colonoscopy and endoscopy.  He said he would have liked to schedule those for the following day, BUT since Isaac had been on the anti-inflammatory, he didn't think he'd get an accurate picture of what's going on.

So he asked us to stop giving him the medicine and call within a couple of days to make an appointment for a colonoscopy and endoscopy next week.  He said if the joint pain had gotten worse in the meantime, he would refer us to a rheumatology specialist as well.

The last pill Isaac took was Sunday night, and he managed Monday pretty well.  He was a little sore in some joints, but able to move and walk.  (I think he's getting used to the pain, too- and a certain level of pain has become his new normal.)  Yesterday I noticed him wincing several times.  He's not a complainer, and won't offer up information that might make me worry or lose sleep.  So I have to press him a bit to find out what he's feeling: "Isaac, which joints are hurting right now?"  When asked yesterday, he admitted that his wrists were hurting, and his ankles, and one of his knees.  Last night his knee was in so much pain that he couldn't extend his leg all the way, and he had to use me for support to hop on his good leg from the living room to the stairs, then scoot down the stairs on his bum.

I will call today to schedule the colonoscopy and the endoscopy, and will also ask for an appointment with a specialist in rheumatology.  I am hoping he can be seen early next week.  I am especially concerned about his joint pain worsening in the coming days.

Thank you for letting me ramble on here about what is going on in our lives.  I know that so many of you have your own trials; your own stories of pain and heartache.  It is my prayer for you that God would meet you there, and that you might sense His presence and find His comfort in the midst of the hard.  I pray that He would strengthen you and encourage you through His word and through His people.  Blessings to all of you,

~Stacy