16mo Getting Biopsy In One Week!

[Guest Aziah]

I spoke with DDs pediatric gastro- and it looks like she is scheduled to have the colonoscopy and biopsy and whatever else next Thursday. Can anyone tell me what to expect? Will she be in pain? How accurate is the biopsy?

Thanks!!!

[2Boys4Me]

My son had his biopsy when he was 5 1/2 years old (in August 2005). He had to fast from 11 pm on Wednesday until they gave him the popsicle after the biopsy Thursday morning. He was not allowed anything, even water. We got to the hospital, they admitted him, weighed him, etc. The nurse came to get him, he and his bear Bobby went with her and we saw him about an hour later after the procedure. They gave him a general anaesthetic and he was fine. Of course, he thinks the best part was the two popsicles they gave him after and that the nurses told him he was not allowed to use his imagination for the rest of the day, he was only allowed to watch tv or movies all day. We got the results a week later and the gluten-free adventure began.

As far as accuracy, I can't guess to that. I suppose it depends on how many samples and where the samples were taken from. Ty had samples from esophagus (sp?), stomach and duodenum. The results said that there were areas of normal villi and other areas of "severely blunted villi consistent with Celiac disease". I can't remember how they worded the normal part. He did not have a colonoscopy, just the upper endoscopy.

[Mayam]

Hi,

My oldest daughter had her biopsy at 3 1/2 and my youngest daughter had her biopsy at 20 months. We had a great experience at the hospital where the biopsy was performed. They scheduled the earliest time for the procedure since the girls were not allowed to eat when they woke up in the morning until after the biopsy.

We went into a special room with lots of toys and movies. The girls got to pick out special toys to keep and someone came by and explained the procedure and showed them age appropriate pictures. Another lady came by to sing songs and she brought her cart with musical instruments.

My husband held the girls when they put them under the general and then they put them on the bed. The anesthesiologist was wonderful at explaining what would happen when they put them under. It was a little bit scary because their body jerked and then they went right to sleep. Even though you know they are asleep it's hard to see your children go to sleep like that.

The biopsy is considered the gold standard for diagnosing celiac disease. The ped. GI that performed my oldest's biopsy was able to tell us right then that from what he had seen it appeared she had damaged villi consistent with celiac disease. He also confirmed it when the biopsy was examined. My youngest had positive bloodwork but a negative biopsy. I consider her biopsy inconclusive since I feel that she may have been too young to show much damage. I'm also unsure as to if he biopsied more than one part of the intestines.

The girls were not in pain when they woke up from the procedure. I have also had a biopsy and it was not painful.

Hope that helps,

Rachel

[Smunkeemom]

Both of my girls have had biopsy, they couldn't eat after midnight, when we got to the hospital the nurse put numbing lotion on them, started an IV (which neither of them seemed to notice thanks to the numbing gel) and then gave them meds, they went to sleep, got scoped, biopsy-ed, and then went home. The more liquids they had post biopsy the less they felt "high", but other than that it was pretty uneventful.

Annika was 12 months old for her diagnosis biopsy, and 18 months for her follow up.

Kathryn was 3 for her first, and will have to go in for another soon.

The tip that I would give, is to bring a doll or teddy bear, that the nurse can "pretend" with to show the kid everything they are going to do, we did that all 3 times and stuff went over much better.

The nurse "pretended" to put numbing lotion on, used the cap of a pen for the IV and used the rubberband thingy, showed how she was going to wipe it off (she used a dry paper towel) and taped in the "IV", they even got one of those surgical hats (the funny blue ones) to put on Annika and her teddy bear. I think it made the whole thing less scary for both of them.

[VydorScope]

I spoke with DDs pediatric gastro- and it looks like she is scheduled to have the colonoscopy and biopsy and whatever else next Thursday. Can anyone tell me what to expect? Will she be in pain? How accurate is the biopsy?

Thanks!!!

My son had his at 18months old. He was in no pain that we can tell, and the only reocvery was sleeping off the drugs that they used to put him under. Realy I think it was much harder on his parents then him! I personaly had 2 endoscopes and the worst of it was a sore throat after it.

As for accuracy... Biposy are considered teh "standard" here in USA, BUT you should know that a bipospy can only RULE IN celiac disease, it can never rule it out, reguardless of them incorrectly calling the reuslts "negative". Biopsy can only be "postive" or "non-postive", never "negative".

[Jnkmnky]

From what I understand, the biopsies aren't that great at predicting Celiac in kids that young, just as the blood tests aren't that great. I think kids that age should NOT be getting this procedure done. The dietary challange is not making doctors rich, but it works.

[chrissy]

my daughter had her biopsies done 2 days ago. the doctor let me stay in and watch the whole procedure. i stood right next to the doctor and held on to tiann's hands so that they wouldn't (reflex actions) go up to her mouth. i found the whole procedure very interesting and tianna did not remember a thing afterwards.

christine

[mcle8232]

colonoscopy and biopsy and whatever else

This statement just concerned me because some doctors think that they can send samples of tissue from the colon in order to diagnose celiac disease. This is not true. Make sure that if you are wantng to test specifically for celiac, the doc runs a duodenal (small intestinal) biopsy (not a colonoscopy, which is a scope of the large intestine).

If you are testing for celiac, the procedure you want to have done is correctly called an endoscopy, which goes down the throat.