Jocelyn's Procedures

It's been a stressful few days, but it's over.   Now the waiting begins....

On Thursday Jocelyn went into John Hopkins Pediatric Gastroenterology for an Endoscopy and a Colonoscopy.  She has been dealing with belly pain for months and as any parent knows, it's been so hard to see my baby girl in pain.  But it's been a process.

After numerous conversations and visits with the Pediatrician, she decided to send Jocelyn in for bloodwork. We thought that would be really scary for Jocelyn, but she had been with me to get bloodwork a few times so she knew what that was about.  When her turn came she watched the whole process barely phased.  Little did we know that was the easy part.  I guess it's good news that the blood test results came back negative for everything - allergies, infections, Celiac, ulcers, etc.

We started to suspect that Soy was an issue because many of the complaints came after she drank a big cup of soy milk.  And sure enough, we discovered, , that after years of drinking soy milk and eating soy cheese - as the replacement for a dairy intolerance - Jocelyn has become intolerant to soy products as well.  Yippee.
So we switched her to Almond and Rice products and thought the problem was solved.  But then a few weeks later, we were STILL dealing with belly complaints.  So at that point, the Pediatrician sent us off to the Gastroenterologist.

And that is how we ended up with the procedures this past week.

It's very hard as a parent to watch your little girl go through such grown up scary stuff, but let me start by saying, I could not be more proud of Jocelyn.  For anyone that's had these procedures, the prep is not much fun.  We told her what to expect, and she just went along without complaint.  I'm not sure I would have!!

Reading and waiting...

The next morning we were off to the hospital.  We tried to avoid describing the actual procedures.  It was all about trying not to scare her.  But she was doing great!

Waiting with Stripes our new trip-to-the-hospital friend.

Lots of people came in and out of the room to talk to us, and her.  Every single one of them was great with kids, but this lady, Jessica, brought her friend Lucy the hand puppet, and together they showed Jocelyn everything that was going to happen, so she would know what to expect, and hopefully not be afraid.

Learning about blood pressure cuffs with Lucy.

We had to wait a bit for the patient procedure that was scheduled before Jocelyn's, so she watched TV, and I got more and more nervous.  Eventually it was her turn and I went with her to the OR.

Looking MUCH calmer than I felt.

I kept my brave face until she was asleep and then I fell apart.  She did amazing.  She told me that night that she was afraid when they put her to sleep "because it's not normal to take a nap in the daytime!"  But you would never have been able to tell that she was scared by looking at her at the time.

When the procedures were over an hour later, the Dr. told us that everything *looked* normal.  Which is a good thing because some of the worst possible outcomes are visible.  She took numerous biopsies and now we wait for results.  It's going to take a week to 10 days.  Guess we've waited this long...  but I just want answers so Jocelyn can stop having belly pain and get on with her little girl life.

Waking up after the procedures was probably the worst part for Jocelyn.  Not because she felt bad, but because I did not bring her lovies and she wanted them BAD!  I had made the decision to leave them at home because I didn't want to risk losing the only four "Big Heart Lovies" in the world.  BIG Mommy mistake!  So when she was ready, they sent us on our way, and she was much happier at home with lovies in hand.  Of course, my no-nap child did not nap that day, but she slept like a rock that night, and other than a sore throat, she was back to normal yesterday.

I know I've said it before, but I am so proud of this girl.  That whole experience was so scary and unknown for her, and yet, she was a brave, strong, wonderful girl through all of it.  I hope so much that we never have to put her through something like that again.  Now I just hope that something comes back from the test results, that gives us an answer, and makes all this worth it.