Back where we started?

Ah, crap.

Unfortunately the last week or so has been a backward slide for Ellie and the great progress that she had made since her surgery in January.

Despite our work to plug her ostomy and force more food down her colon, it isn't having the same effect as it did immediately after her surgery. Her ostomy output is back up to the point that we are giving her supplemental IV fluids again to keep her in balance and she rarely poops for us without help from a glycerin suppository.

This is discouraging for us but at the same time it makes us glad that we weren't overly aggressive with her last surgery which easily could have reconnected her. If we had done that we might have gone backward into the days of a grossly dilated bowel. Nobody likes dilated bowels.

Instead, we pull the plug and let the pressure escape sometimes with explosive results like ~500 ml (12 ounces) of fluid gushing out at a time.

So the ongoing game of intestinal plumbing continues. Ellie is booked for a contrast study next week to see how things move through her gut and will likely be booked for a colonoscopy in the weeks after that to see if the problem lies in her colon.

Miraculously Ellie is in great spirits and continues to smile and giggle at all day and ask for 'noooodles'. And on the upside, her new g-tube is in great condition.

Things could be a lot worse than Abby and I worrying about her gut.

We do that no matter what.