Meeting Went Well

Our meeting with Dr. Levitt went well and he was a very nice guy. He was able to look at his xrays and images along with a quick physical exam and gave us some positive news. He said by just what he could see from what was in front of him, that Robbie had a good, deep butt crack (which is good in these cases, guess Dad's big butt helped on this), and that his muscles in the anal area seemed to be good. When he looked at the xray he could see where the colon was and thought it was in a good spot to pull it through. The only concern he had was that there was a gap between his pelvis and femur that is somewhat common in bladder exstrophy patients because of the way the pelvis doesn't completely fuse together. He wants an MRI of the pelvis just to make sure that this gap just has a fatty tissue in it that can be removed before he gets in there and has to figure it out then. Again, this is common in exstrophy patients and shouldn't be a big deal.

We check into the hospital on Sunday at 9:00 a.m. (EST) and the MRI will be at some point during the day. Surgery is scheduled for Monday at 7:30 a.m. We are so grateful for all the prayers and thoughts for Robbie and just ask that they continue for a very successful surgery. If all goes as planned, we will be able to return here in 6-8 weeks, or after basketball season, and get rid of his colostomy bag and have to worry about changing poopy diapers.

As far as his bowel management goes, if everything goes well with the surgery and he is right about his assumption of Robbie's case, he thinks that he will be able to control his bowels, but will just be a little delayed in the time that he does this. We are praying that he is right and that Robbie will be able to poop whenever and wherever he wants to. More updates will come as we get them, but we are just anxious to get the surgery started and get Robbie on the way to a "normal" life.

Tomorrow we have some friends who Dr. Gearhart (Johns Hopkins) put us in touch with from Louisville, KY coming to visit us here in Cincinnati. They have a little boy who has a very similar case as Robbie and have helped us a lot in understanding what is going on with both the bladder and anus. It will be great to see them and see what we have to look forward to. He has had both the anus fixed and the bladder put away and is doing great. We really look forward to seeing them tomorrow and introducing the two boys.