Kennedy's GI appointment in Cincinnati

Hi everyone!

We are home safely. We had a good time in Cincinnati but I'm glad to be home and am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight!

Onto Kennedy's appointment: She saw Dr. Yazigi (which I now know how to pronounce! haha) and I LOVE her!!! She explained that after chemo it can take a year or two for an immune system to REALLY be back up to par. She also said that since Kennedy had C-diff at the end of her chemo treatments, this was most likely the culprit. The hemonc clinic and Kennedy's pediatrician have both tested her for C-Diff but it came back negative. Dr. Yazigi said that once you have it, it can still linger and not show up on tests. SO she put her on the anti-biotic, Flagyl, which is what cleared her C-Diff before. She said that it may take several courses of Flagyl to clear this up, but we're praying hard that it works!

She also gave me a lot of helpful information for Kennedy's upcoming surgery. Because Kennedy has a history of aspirating thin liquids she said that we should thicken her liquids after surgery for a few weeks, just until we're sure she's eating and drinking ok. She said it would be so horrible for her to get pneumonia while recovering from a surgery like that. I would definitely have to agree!

She also mentioned not to be upset if Kennedy required a feeding tube for awhile after surgery because often kids stop eating... but they warned me about that while she was going through chemo too and she always did GREAT, so I'm not too worried about that!!

She also wants Kennedy to have an upper GI done at Vandy before surgery. haha I told her good luck! She was going to talk to her GI there and I told her she'd be better off with hemonc, so I think she's going to call her oncologist. The purpose of the Upper GI is to make sure there are no structural abnormalities that would cause any problems during or after surgery. For those of you who have been following Kennedy for a long time, you may remember she has several vascular anomalies that no one can really explain.

She also ran blood work and said they would call and let me know the results in about a week. She was specifically checking her immunoglobins and if they are lacking she will recieve an antibody called IVIG which she has had before, and is really no big deal. It will just give her immune system a boost which may not be a bad idea before surgery!

Anyway, that's about it! I was SO relieved to FINALLY get some answers and feel like we're getting somewhere. Dr. Yazigi was SO much help and we are going back to see her at the end of August, but in the meantime we'll be in contact over the phone.

After her appointment, my mom and I took the kids to the zoo and had a GREAT time! Keeghan really loved looking at all the animals, especially the monkeys. It started pouring before we got all the way through the zoo, but we still had a good time. Today before we left, we met up with our friends Tom and Lisa and their beautiful kids. Tom is a fire fighter so we met him at the station and got a grand tour and even a ride on a fire truck! The kids absolutely loved it! Then we hung out and ate pizza before the long drive home. So much fun!

OK that's about it! Pictures coming soon!!!