We were late. So so so late. Here’s the thing though, even if you’re late, if you rush and apologise profusely, even if they’ve closed down the clinic (whoops) they’ll typically try fit you in. That is, you know, if you have a complex needs child with all the medical requirements that Kai does.
Thank you, powers that be for the kindness shown by the paediatric X-ray team on the day we were late. The opened up the clinic for us, and in we went. After removing Kai’s comfy bottoms (they had metal poppers), it was a small matter of wearing a lead gown and putting the colourless, tasteless, odourless dye down Kai’s tube and doing the X-ray.
It was very clever, I had no idea how quickly things moved! You could see right away when the dye lined Kai’s stomach. From there we rolled him into his side, and it dripped into his small bowel. From there, his muscles did all the work. You could see the dye swishing from one side of his body to the next, outlining the shape of his small bowel.
Pretty fascinating. It was a fairly quick appointment to be fair. The whole routine was done in fifteen minutes, and by the time we were done, Kai had fallen asleep on the table, so I dressed him and off we went.
The wonderful Dr Williams gave us a thumbs up – Kai’s stomach looks good, the small bowel looks good, everything apparently is working as it’s meant too.
Woohoo!
We’ll need to wait for the next clinic and from there will be able to book in the surgery!
There is a small part of me that is very very nervous about this. About how Kai will respond to the anesthetic and how we’ll managing fast but needing a full belly for meds and the pain (more seizures?). About whether it’s the right thing to do, about whether it will cause us more complications or whether it will just fine, making things easier for all of us.
But then I look at his beautiful, scratched up face, and I know how much he hates the tube down his nose.
So, we wait for the next appointment. Gastrostomy, we’re making progress towards it!
