Drum roll please!

And Nora’s small intestine has grown to………… 16cm!!
HOORAY!!!

The initial amount of 4.5cm she started off with has more than tripled in length in 23 months. This is an “approximate” measurement since it was measured from x-ray film but this is the most accurate measurement that can be taken without actually opening her up and putting a ruler up to her intestines. We are just so excited to have even an approximate measurement because up until we switched Nora’s GI doctors we had always been told that there was no way to know how much her small intestine had grown without surgery. (which always sounded a bit questionable to us)

Nora’s abdominal and liver ultrasound showed “no acute findings”. We just have the basic information from her radiology reports at the moment since we haven’t haven’t spoken to her GI doctors yet. Hopefully we’ll get to hear the short bowel team’s insight and interpretation on her transit time and the sloshing action that was seen in her small intestine before Nora’s next clinic appointment at the beginning of May.

Nora’s plasma citrulline level was supposed to have been checked with her last set of labs but the lab messed up and checked her cyclic citrulline level instead. Plasma citrulline levels give an indication of nutrient absorption through the intestine and cyclic citrulline level checks for RA (rheumatoid arthritis). So we’ll have to wait for her next round of labs in a couple of weeks to get an idea of how well her intestinal absorption is but at least we know she’s negative for rheumatoid arthritis. 🙂

Nora continued to feel pretty miserable all last week with sneezing, coughing and a runny nose.  So Friday we took her to see Min Tian, our Chinese acupuncturist who has been helping us with Nora since she was a tiny baby. Min thought that Nora was now dealing with a bad case of allergies and gave her some herbal and homeopathic remedies that have seemed to really help her in the past few days.

Even with still feeling a bit puny this week Nora is always up for some fun. Here are a couple videos of her riding her pony and dancing from this past week. She’s a bit hard to understand in the first one with her scratchy, horse voice but she is saying that her horsey needs batteries because she has about run them out with insisting that the song be played when she’s riding him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhf88Ma_nqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8k7PMO98Og

Nora did end up loosing about a half a pound since she got sick but thankfully her appetite seems to be picking back up. This weeks Omegaven shipment being held up in customs and Nora not having it for the past few nights isn’t helping her weight situation but I’m sure our Super Nora will gain it back soon.