Smooth Moves

The following is an update email I sent out to those for whom I had correct addresses (I almost typed that with a dangling participle. Yikes!):

Hi Friends-

You're receiving this update email because you are a part of Jack's life and have been concerned and/or praying for him over the last couple of months. I wanted to let all of you know what we've found out and what the future holds for sweet Jack.

We Know What's Wrong
Jack's colon is stretched out (diameter-wise) 2.5 times as wide as it should be. This makes it darn near impossible to poop normally. The colon got stretched out because Jack was holding his stool. A lot of it!

How it Got That Way
After quite a few tests, there seems to be no physical reason why Jack was holding his stool. The GI doc has been able to rule out quite a few diseases, physical abnormalities, and congenital birth defects. The reasoning behind the holding appears to be behavioral. For whatever reason, Jack has been purposefully holding his stool (which stretched out the colon)

So What Do We Do Now?
The doctor is confident that Jack's colon will go back down to normal size (and have it's motility/squeezing functionality back) if we can keep him "cleaned out." So we're going to be giving him stimulants like Ex-Lax to help encourage those muscles to push out the stool. If that doesn't work, then we'll be continuing to give Jack enemas every couple of days to keep him cleaned out (not fun).

And If That Doesn't Work?
A second option, if the above doesn't work, is to use Botox on his sphincter muscle to help him relax. Guess that would make his bum look younger?!? This would give him 6-8 weeks of relaxation down there to help ease things out.

And If We Had To Go To Extremes?
Our third and highly unlikely option is to have a colostomy bag outside of his body to bypass the colon and let it 'heal'. Again, this is highly unlikely, but it is an option if we can't get this under control.

Prayer Requests

• pain -- that it would go away or decrease. Jack still has painful episodes every 30 minutes to two hours during the day. They can be quite painful. Thankfully, since his colonoscopy, he's been sleeping through the night without pain.
• colon -- that it would get back down to normal size and have it's functionality (squeezing) back
• being regular -- that Jack would be able to, um, poop regularly and not hold it.
• being regular -- Jack mentioned the other day that he wants to just be a regular kid again. I'm sure its embarrassing for him (when he yells and screams in pain), and he wants to be normal

Thank you for being a part of our lives, and thank you for your prayers. If any other major developments erupt, I'll let you know. God is good. All the time. And He's overseeing this process and knows what will happen in His time.