Day 78

It's past time for Holden to get some good news, but the poor kid just can't catch a break. We still don't know what's going on with his lungs and O2 sats, but we may have some answers from the GI team after the tests Holden had this morning. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this on here, but Holden's whole cute little body- not just his heart- is completely backwards. In medical terms, that's called situs inversus, and it means that all of his organs are mirrored from what yours and mine would be. In most people, the stomach is on the left side, but Holden's is on his right side. All of his organs are opposite like that. When the intestines are reversed, it's called malrotation, and it can potentially cause a lot of problems. Evidently, some people can be malrotated (even without the complete situs inversus like Holden has), and never show any symptoms. They may never even know about it. Holden is not one of those people. The doctors think that because of the malrotation, his intestines are twisting and untwisting, causing his digestive issues and pain. (If the intestine were to stay twisted, it would be called a volvulus- or a very bad thing. He doesn't have that- yet.) The only treatment for it is a surgery called a Ladd procedure. From what I understand so far, the question isn't if he'll have to have the surgery, it's when. We'll have to talk to his heart surgeons and see what they have to say about the timing of the surgery, but it looks like another OR trip will be in our near future. :( This isn't the news I wanted, but at least we know what we're dealing with now. We should have more information in the next few days, and in the meantime, please pray that we'll all make the right decisions to bring Holden back to us healthy and happy!