Tomorrow is Levi's Procedure at Duke

Tomorrow is the day that my peanuts butters goes to Duke Children's Hospital for his Upper Endoscopy with Biopsy.

We will leave home around 6 am. Check in at Duke Children's Hospital by 8 am and begin the pre-op procedures. Then, his actual procedure will take place.

WARNING: READING ANY FURTHER MAY RESULT IN BEING GROSSED OUT

The doctor will be running a tube with a light/camera/pinchy-thing on it through his esophagus and stomach to the top of the small intestine. There, they will take tissue biopsies to look for ciliac disease (the inability to process wheat products). On the way out, they will stop off in the stomach to take tissue biopsies there to determine if ulcers, infection and/or gastritis (inflammation) exist, as well as any other disease processes. Finally, they will stop in the esophagus and take tissue biopsies to look for infection and disease process as well as looking for: inflammation (a sign that his gastric problem is, in fact, reflux - what he's been treated for since May 2009); increased eosinophils (a sign that the problem is actually Eosinophilic Esophagitis aka "EE", which is what 4 of our 5 doctors highly suspect with the 5th accepting it as a possibility).

Levi always has a hard time "waking up" after anesthesia. We're hoping he's grown out of that (it's been 9 months since he was last anesthetized) but just in case, will you say an extra little prayer for my baby boy that it'll be easier than the other times? Especially since he's going to have to go through it again on Tuesday of this coming week for his CT at UNC.

The plan is that we'll speak with the doctor who will tell us what he saw while doing the procedure, but that we will not have a definitive answer on the result of the biopsies for about a week.

I appreciate that any of you reading actually care. It means a lot.

Take care.

Anna