David's Story Part 28: A Health Issue

6/26/04

David, by the way, has given me something new to worry about. He has had blood in his stool. From his report he has had a lot of blood. We took him into the doctor’s office and they ruled out the simple things (e.g. hemorrhoids). They told him that he is hemorrhaging somewhere (don’t you love it when they state the obvious). He has an appointment on Tuesday for test results.

6/30/04

Daivd is still passing blood. At first I just thought he meant that there was blood in his stool, but apparently there has been more than that suggests. The physican thinks that it is probably internal hemorrhoids, even though the blood is dark and never bright red. (Dark blood means that it sat in his system for a while). He is sufficiently confident about this that he went ahead and gave David a prescription for that. David will be going in next week for an upper GI to see if he has an ulcer and the week after that he will have his lower colon "scoped." It is not a full colonoscopy though.

Of course when David is anxious he completely looses his appetite. The physican prescribed an anti-anxiety drug.

David has said that what he really needs a puppy. Hah! David's younger brother, Steven's foster parents' Cocker Spaniel has recently had puppies. (got that?) Of course there is NO WAY that is going to happen. Right now we have two cockatiels, two rats, two cats, a firebelly toad, and a dog.

7/1/04

IBS was on my list of things to worry about. Dr. Kunz seemed to rule it out based upon the fact that David had no other symptoms. He is losing blood. It is unclear whether to count his loss of appetite as a symptom since he does that whenever he gets anxious.

7/3/04

David is beginning to eat, just a little. He had a handful of cashews today.

7/7/04

His upper GI went okay. He said that the stuff kept moving through his stomach so he had to keep drinking more. We are thinking less that it is an ulcer though; the suppositories seem to be working. His appetite for solid foods is slowly coming back too. He is only eating enough for the average 4 year old, but it is something.

7/8/04

The doctor's office called and said that David's GI showed that his stomach is normal, no ulcer. Since the suppositories are working and since David really doesn't want to be probed, Dr. Kunz has agreed not to that test. So we are going to assume that the problem is solved. If the symptoms come back then David will have to have further tests.

David's Story Part 1: The Beginning
David's Story Part 29: Summer of 2004