An Answer!

Oh how thankful I am to write those words.  Abby was able to keep down enough of the barium to see her intestines. Thank you Jesus!

We found out that she has a congenital intestinal malrotation.  Her intestines didn’t form correctly early in development (between 6-7th week). The small bowel should loop back and forth horizontally in her abdomen. Abby’s is all on the right side of her abdomen vertically. This has to be surgically corrected.


The doctor thinks that she got the stomach virus, lost weight quickly, and now has positional intestinal crimping. She’s so thin and her spine curves, so as she turns onto it she’s could be temporarily crimping the intestine and as she’s repositioned it straightens out. Most children with intestinal malrotation are diagnosed and corrected in the first year of life. Abby somehow made it through 13 years with it.

She’ll have surgery Friday morning to correct the problem, remove her appendix as it’s probably not formed correctly, and have a g-tube place with a NISSEN (reflux repair). He’ll take a look at the hernia and see if it needs anything or not. Then recovery can begin.

She’ll need to wean down off of TPN and the doctor anticipates a week of trying to get feedings going. This could take longer because she hasn’t eaten in so long. There are many unknowns at this point but the bottom line is we have to fix her tummy to get her well.

There are of course many potential complications. The surgeon isn’t worried though and thinks he should be able to do it laproscopically and have a 3 day recovery. The intensivist said surgeons are good at what they do, but Abby will be more complicated than that. She cautioned me about the amount of time it might take for Abby to be ready to go home.

She needs to get through the next 48 hours as healthy as possible.

We of course are praying for her and as I’ve said before, see this as God’s provision for our girl. We believe He allowed us to see this problem at this time and is already caring for Abby.

I am overwhelmingly relieved for an answer. My mama heart knew something was wrong, so that same heart is still concerned for my girl, but grateful too. We are so thankful it can be fixed and she shouldn’t have any other problems from it.

I appreciate the prayers for Abby to be able to tolerate the barium. It was truly answered by our merciful God who knew I was nearing the end of my rope. My Abigail needed answers and this explains sooo much! I know you’ll be praying for her on Friday and until then to remain free from infection or any other complication.