Background:
In December and January Alex had some episodes of rectal bleeding. Enough that it was a little scary and after the first time I took him to our family doctor. All the information they looked up pointed to a rectal polyp being the culprit since he had no other symptoms. We decided to take a wait and see approach since the next step would be a barium enima/air contrast x-ray test.
After the second bout in January we went ahead and did the x-ray test. 24 hours of clear liquids, castor oil prep,then a barium enima during the test......not fun. However the radiologist found a suspicious spot that could be a polyp. Or could be residual stool. No way to know by that test.
On to the next step which was seeing a Pediatric Gastroenterologist at the Children's hospital in Grand Rapids (2 hours south of us).
Yesterday:
We saw the specialist. She reviewed his records and agreed that a polyp was the most likely cause. There are a few other slight possibilities that are not likely in his case due to lack of other symptoms - both are inflammatory conditions - and she ordered a couple blood tests to rule that out.
Polyps in children are usually a one time thing she said, not like in adults where once you get some removed you have to keep getting checked over and over. She has never in all her years of practice seen one that was malignant, they are almost always benign.
Alex has not had another bleeding episode since the beginning of January. She said that doesn't mean there isn't a polyp there, they bleed intermittantley, but it could mean that it came loose and he passed it on his own. Or there may not even have been one there ever and the bleeding was caused by something else. Nice and definitive, eh?
She checked a small stool sample yesterday for occult blood (blood you cannot see with your naked eye) and it was negative. She ordered a blood count to make sure he isn't anemic and that would indicate he has been bleeding small amounts continuously that we can't see.
The next step is a colonoscopy. 36 hour clear liquid diet, plus the prep, plus getting put under for the procedure. Big deal. We have one scheduled for May.
IF any of the labs come back abnormal or he has another bleeding episode before May then we will go down and do the test.
IF he continues to be normal, the labs are normal....then we'll have to decide if we want to put him through that. Right now we are leaning towards no. She said to decide the week before.
Alex did an awesome job with the exam and getting blood drawn. It was a long tiring day for all of us.
