Tough times for DK

Yesterday we visited the main hospital in Copenhagen for DK to see a specialist about a missing accessory... The doctor was more interested in his tummy though as I mentioned so next week he and MK (and possibly me) will be at the hospital on Monday and Tuesday as well as the rest of the week for his cleft palate operation. This is so that he can be cleaned out inside his gut for a barium enema and to take a biopsy sample from his bowel to test for Hirschsprung's disease. This is a genetic disease that effects the bowel meaning that part of it does not have the required nerve cells to function properly so it becomes a blockage point.If he has Hirschsprungs disease then this would explain his rather swollen abdomen and permanent constipation but the treatment seems to be a bit frightening because it involves removing the non-functioning section and joining up the working parts.

Part of me hopes that this is not the problem and that it will go away when he is able to eat a more normal diet (that is after the cleft palate is fixed) but another part of me would be happy to have identified the problem and be able to fix it.

Both MK and I were pretty upset yesterday at the prospect of another problem requiring surgery and it is all the more upsetting to think that it will involve cutting DK open and removing part of him. Actually just writing that makes me not want to think about it any more, but I don't suppose we will have the luxury of pretending it doesn't exist.

I know that being a parent isn't supposed to be easy, but sometimes it seems to be really unfair, just when you think the end of the medical treatments is in sight, another diagnosis crops up and you are back at the start of another round of treatment. MK and I can cope with it, but we both feel really sorry for DK who remains a happy little boy who is more or less completely preoccupied with climbing and learning to stand up steadily so that he can get on with walking.