William Christopher Ammons

After a pregnancy with a few complications such as bleeding at 12 weeks and 26 weeks and bed rest for most of the pregnancy, Christopher was born by C-section on April 17, 1995, a full two weeks late. He weighed in at 9 lb. 6 oz. and was 21 inches long. He was not doing well from the start his blood sugar was 15 and it turns out I had gestational Diabetes and nobody bothered to tell me. They put him in the NICU. Then he would not pass his Meconium plug and so they called in a surgeon to dilate his rectum. He was not eating enough and was generally listless but they continued to work with him doing all that they could and he got better, started taking the breast milk I expressed for him and eventually started behaving normally.

	I took him home and for three months I breast fed him and he was happy and from all appearances healthy, as soon as I decided to go back to work I switched him to formula and he stopped having BMs so then I started taking him to the pediatrician and they said change the formula, 4 or 5 times they said change the formula after 14 days of no BM I took him to the ER and refused to leave before they told me what was wrong with my son.
Luckily the same surgeon that had dilated his rectum was in the hospital and looked my son over, did x-rays and decided to do a biopsy the next day, it came back positive that he had HD. They scheduled surgery and told me It should take 30 min or so it took them 4 hours. They did a colostomy with a mucus plug and after about a week he started getting really sick, the colon that was left inside had become infected so they removed it. Christopher had and iliostomy and was doing some better. He had the largest problem of staying hydrated, we were in and out of the hospital about 10-15 times for dehydration, they put in a permanent central line/infusaport for IV fluid and a G-tube (his other belly button) I came up with the solution of mixing formula and pedilite and the problem of dehydration was solve, he still doesn't gain weight well and his teeth have suffered major erosion from the lack of nutrition that he absorbs, but he is the happiest child you would ever want to meet.
	So as for now he has and iliostomy and he will stay that way for as long as he does well. He has had his "bag" since he was 3 months old and doesn't know the difference so we won't change it now. He will start school in August and can't wait to go.