An arts and crafts project gone wrong!

The tests weren't much fun, but they yielded some important information.  Finally, we were getting some answers.  The GI doctor wasn't sure why his stomach wasn't emptying properly, but she definitely new it wasn't working.

As usual my mind started racing with questions.  What about the Pyloric Stenosis and the reflux problem?  Were those really part of the problem, or had we done two surgeries for nothing?  What's the fix for a broken stomach?  Is there a pill for it?  Does he have to have another surgery?

By this point, the GI doctor knew I was a person who liked to ask a lot of questions.  She came "armed" with a bunch of answers.  Some of them I didn't like too much.  She told us that the first two surgeries had been necessary, and both surgeries had helped to solve part of the problem.  I didn't like that word, "part."  Is there really more to the problem?  Really?  Unfortunately, the answer to my question was one I already knew.  Yes, there was more.  She continued to tell us that Christopher's stomach was not working, and she didn't know why.  It looks normal, no visible abnormalities.  For some reason it just doesn't move the food down the digestive track.  My next question...so what do we do about it?  Her answer was not very satisfying.  She told us that was the tricky part.  We would have to experiment using a NG tube. 

Yikes!  He doesn't like those too much!  Isn't there another way?  She told us there wasn't.  This was the next best thing to try.  My mind started thinking about how all this was going to work, or not work.  Wait a minute, if his stomach doesn't empty what does it matter whether he eats the food by mouth, or we put it in there through a tube?  Isn't it still just going to sit there?  Here came the tricky part.  She explained that by using the feeding tube we could control how fast the food went into the stomach.  The hope was that his stomach was just extremely slow, and maybe if we put the food in very slowly it would work enough for him to grow.  I was just hoping that she was right!

Sometimes in life it seems like there are no good choices.  Choice #1 put that uncomfortable tube down my son's nose OR choice #2 let him starve to death.  We went with choice #1.  Never had I ever conceived of the idea that we would be tube feeding our baby.  How did we ever get here? 

I began to think back to the time when I had been pregnant with Christopher.  I know things are "formed" at different days during a pregnancy.  It's kind of like a 9 month arts and crafts project.  I don't know what happened on the day I was supposed to be making the stomach.  Maybe I ate too much spicy food or something.  Apparently, I really messed that part up.  I must not have followed the directions.  After nine months my project didn't turn out quite right, but that didn't matter.  I loved it, him, anyway!

                                                                                                                                                                        God is the master of "arts and crafts."  He makes the best stuff!  His creation is astounding!  In this picture Christopher is enjoying the warm waters of Maui, Hawaii.  I think these are two (Maui and Christopher) of the most beautiful things in all of God's creation, and both are two of my personal favorites!


 If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can pray like this:

More tomorrow...