Monday, December 03, 2007

Christmas Season Begins Early

We have had an very active few weeks chasing both Ellie's gut and Ellie herself.

On the gut front, she is still having the highest ostomy outputs that we have ever seen, which is a concern for us but not an overwhelming concern since Ellie feels great and doesn't miss a beat even when she is a running half a quart low on the fluids. This does mean that we have too hook her up to an IV every now and then when her numbers are really out of whack and let her have some fluids while she has a nap. A few hours of fluid and the dark circles under her eyes go away and she has very rosy cheeks again.
We're not sure why her output is so high and there are lots of theories. We have just finished seven days of Flagyl, an antibiotic to kill any bugs that might have carpeted her gut. She may also have a yeast infection. She may also have some kind of an allergy. She might just be working with a fully functional bit of bowel that's job is to secrete large amounts of fluids into her bowel (that would be reabsorbed in her colon if it were fully attached.) Take your pick.

The bright side is that she is very happy and giggles all day long while she does every dance that the Wiggles teach her. Stand on one foot and shake your hands? Oh yeah, she's got that one down.

We are getting ready for Christmas and took Ellie to the tree farm on Sunday to get a tree. she thought that the walk in the field was great fun : though she wasn't quite sure what to make of a running nose in the cold.

We will put the tree up in the next day or so and let her loose with the more sturdy decorations.

Even though things aren't super smooth on the medical front, we are having lots of fun these days and are looking forward to more fun:

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