Infection

I received a call late this morning from one of the doctors at the Special Care Nursery who wanted to let us know that Will had had a bloody stool. Obviously this is not "normal" so they immediately ran some blood tests and took several x-rays of his intestines and stomach. A few hours later, they had the results back and apparently he has a condition called necrotizing enterocolitis which affects the intestines. Here is a website I found that describes the disease almost word for word the way the neonatalogist described it to me: http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/digestive/nec.html Now that they have found a cause for Will's bloody stool, the next step is treating it. He is back on an IV and will continue to get his nourishment through that, since they have to stop his feedings for at least 7 days. They are pumping him full of antibiotics and they will be taking lots of x-rays over the next 48 hours to ensure that there are no holes forming in the intestines (which would require a transfer back to Children's and surgery). The doctor believes that they caught it early enough and that Will should respond to treatments well, but they are keeping a close eye on him. I guess Will has been very active today through all of the tests and is a little feisty...which is a good thing! I will keep everyone updated through this blog as we find out more! This obviously will delay his discharge from the hospital, but the most important thing is that he is healthy when he does get to come home!