We Made It Home
30 August 2017
Hi Everyone,
We made it home!
Cincinnati Children's Hospital was amazing. Both the doctor (Jason Frischer) and nurse (Monica Holder) were very experienced, kind and helpful. They assessed Torben and taught us how to do daily enemas on him. Each day we adjusted the enema solution and they would x-ray him to see if he was emptying properly with the aim being to keep him clean of stool for 24hours. He is still having a few accidents so he is in nappies at the moment but this is a HUGE improvement on the constant soiling we were dealing with before we left. The best thing about doing the Bowel Management Programme is that we are now patients for life so we have the support of a great team over there when ever we need it.
As mentioned in earlier updates they thought that Torben may need more surgery to re make his anus. After assessing him they told us his anus is still not as big as it needs to be so he will need it redone. This was difficult to hear as we have been flying up to Christchurch every month for the last year to have his anus dilated under general anesthetic to try to avoid having to have it re done. Anyway, both the surgeon there and our surgeon here are going to talk and discuss a long term plan for Torben.
Also, the urology testing that was done over there revealed that his bladder is larger than normal and not emptying properly. We knew that this was a possibility as it is quite common for children with anorectal malformations. It was still very hard to hear that we will have to deal with possible urinary incontinence also.
So even though we had so news that wasnt great at least now we know and can keep on moving forward.
Thank you all so so much for your support to get us there. It has already made a huge difference to his life.
I will endevour to keep up with the updates as this journey continues.
Love the Clarks x
