Emma had three procedures done the week after school was out. On Tuesday at noon, she began her fast (as soon as volleyball practice was over). Early Wednesday morning, she swallowed a pill cam that was the size of my toe. She had no problems at all swallowing it. (I remember the days she chose to chew a Tylenol rather than swallow it. Thank goodness she has progressed!) Unfortunately, she couldn't eat for four more hours, but she had volleyball practice. They said she could go as long as she didn't sweat, bend over, or become too active. I hung out with her so that I could keep an eye on her. She mostly just worked on serves and bumps, and we were very careful to follow all the rules. When practice was over, she was able to eat--but only half of what she would normally eat. I think that was the worst part--watching my child who hadn't eaten in 24 hours only able to eat a half of a sandwich.
My husband and I spent the next few days probing her poop looking for the pill cam. If it didn't pass, it would have to be removed. I will spare you all the disgusting details this time, but I will say that it included a fresh stick from outside each time she went to the bathroom. I guess our neighbors must have thought I was sending Emma outside for hickories. I will also say that we were sure to get sticks straight off of a tree (instead of off the ground) when we roasted marshmallows later that week. (We never did find the camera, so they had to do an X-ray the next week. It did not show up, so we must have overlooked it.)
On Thursday, she had food allergy testing done. We know that she has a massive amount of environmental allergies, and she has been taking medicine and shots for these for about five years. (Although I will admit that we slacked off on her shots this school year.) They retested all of her environmental allergies (they were still there) and did food allergy testing (see next post about results). I had decided to schedule this a few weeks ago in hopes of finding some answers. She left this test and, of course, went to volleyball.
On the following Monday, she had another HIDA scan done. Her GI doctor wanted to be sure the initial results were accurate.
On a side/funny note: Her GI doctor told Emma that he would sit down and eat popcorn while he watched her pill cam video. We decided to buy him a bag of blue kettle corn (that is known to turn your poo quite blue--or sometimes even lime green). We dropped it off at his office, and Emma wrote him a note telling him it was special popcorn to eat while he watched her video. She also warned him that it would turn his poo blue/green. Like I said, her doctor is a good fit for her. He has a great sense of humor.
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