Warning- poop talk!

* If you don't like the words stool, poop or runny....do not read this!

These pictures were taken almost a year ago, on July 16th... the girls' ninth birthday. I love how happy they were and I remember every minute of that awesome weekend with them. Elizabeth is in a wheel chair in the photo because she was pretty sick with Colistridium Difficile Colitis....CDiff. She had a low grade fever, stomach pain and bloody stools.
I cannot believe that a year later, she is fighting CDiff again. Last year, she took a course of antibiotics to cure they infection and it worked. As you know, she has been fighting this latest bout with the infection since April. So frustrating! Remember, we all have the CDiff bacteria in our gut, but it usually lies dormant. For some reason, most likely because of her immunity, she gets the infection and this time, her body isn't fighting it away.
Last week, I wrote that we were waiting for results from the sample I turned in on Saturday the 18th. We waited and waited and finally on Friday I heard from the doctor. A substitute nurse had been filling in for the usual fantastic GI nurse while she is on vacation and instead of freaking reading the lab report, she just kept telling me, as of Wednesday, that the results were in and the doctor would get to me. Actually, the results were not in.... the report was stating that Liz's sample couldn't be processed, not giving us any results. If the nurse had just read the report, we would have known days earlier that another sample had to be submitted. Anyway, Dr. Mathis, Liz's gastroenterologist, called me Friday night and let me know that a trip to the lab first thing Saturday morning was needed. The problem with the sample the week before is that it was not a runny stool sample ( I told you not to read this if you didn't want poop talk!), which is required due to the new protocol by the lab. So stupid. Her doctor told the lab that he wanted the stool tested no matter what the consistency, and so we left another sample this past Saturday.
As we left the hospital on Saturday, Liz said "I still have CDiff, ya know. My tummy hurts like a CDiff hurt."
This afternoon I spoke to the nurse and she told me that Dr. Mathis had been paged, as Liz's results were in... positive for CDiff. Sigh.
So, now I wait. Her stomach has been hurting more, her stool is changing again and she is tired and the nausea is frequent. Her doctor is going to speak with the Infectious Disease doctors and come up with a new plan. So, so frustrating. I imagine they'll want to get her weight this week to see if she's lost more and I know they are talking about trying a new drug, just approved by the FDA in April. She has done 3 rounds of antibiotics since April. Two rounds of Vancomicin, which is an aggressive, hard-hitting drug that should have wiped the Cdiff out the first time, and definitely the second.
Yesterday at church, a video was shown of the prior week's Summer Camp- the camp she was scheduled to attend. She leaned over to me and, crying, said "I should be in that video. I hate my stomach." So, so sad. She can't go in the pool, so swim lessons were cancelled and she has had to turn down swim play dates.

On a happy, happy note, the girls and I (along with my mom) are scheduled to fly to Boston and then head to Maine next week for 5 days at the beach cottage. I am praying that Liz will not worsen and she'll be able to go. She needs the trip; we need the trip. Also, a happy thing is that Liz had a wonderful day today! When Liz was in the hospital last month, my mom took Kate on a special date, so today was Lizzie's turn. She went shopping all day and had (a big!) lunch. She said it was one of her best days ever!

So, if you pray, please pray that Elizabeth will recover. Gosh, it has been months of this nasty infection and she just needs the break. Pray that the doctors have wisdom and can come up with a plan to make Liz well. Pray that Liz's pain and nausea is manageable and that she is comfortable enough to make the trip to Maine.