The last few days have been incredibly long. Early Saturday morning Peanut fully embraced the same vomiting/diarrhea regimen that landed her in the hospital a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, this time it hit her much harder and by the time she was seen at the UIHC on Saturday afternoon she was wiped out and dehydrated. Needless to say, Peanut was started on an IV of replacement fluids and readmitted to the hospital. She spent her weekend in and out of sleep, only waking when the cramps from the excess gas caused her to grab at her stomach and cry.

The last time we went through this, Peanut was diagnosed with c. diff and the on-call doctor originally assumed this was a recurrence – but that’s where the medical debate begins. Without getting into a bunch of detail, c. diff bacteria “brews” in the colon – Peanut doesn’t have a colon. How can someone without a colon get sick from a bacteria that needs the colon environment to thrive? Unknown to us, that was a topic of extensive debate and research by the GI doctors at the UIHC in the days and weeks after Peanut’s last stay.

In order to attempt to answer that question and confirm a proper diagnose, Peanut’s GI doctor scheduled Peanut for a procedure on Monday that would allow a camera to be inserted in her GI tract while tissue samples where collected. The process was relatively short – Peanut was put out, examined, recovered, and taken back to her room in under two hours – though by my “rate-the-seriousness-by-the-number-of-doctors-in-the-room” calculator we were at an 8 or 9. It was hard to tell because there were several that came and went and a few med students that were interested in the potential learning opportunity. The results? We’re still waiting for the results of the biopsies, but from the visual inspection the doctors were able to rule out a c. diff infection as the cause of the illness. Instead, they believe it’s an overgrowth of bacteria in the what’s left of her small intestine – a fairly common problem for “short-gut” kids.

Hopefully, we’ll find the right combination of antibiotics to help realign things and she’ll be back to full speed in no time. Until then, Peanut was already starting to feel better – at least enough to sit in her crib and play the tambourine.