No varices!!!!

Yes, that's right, no varices!!!! I am so happy!

Today went really well. Hannah was a little star from start to finish, and viewed everything as a new adventure. She was very impressed by the sticky plastic covering the little blobs of numbing cream on her hands in preparation for the cannula. She held her hands out in front of her for about half an hour and wouldn't use them, and she kept prodding at the squishy bits with the cream underneath. She got through the whole day without shedding a tear, even when the cannula was put in and taken out (although I think it helped a lot that we wouldn't let her look). She recovered very quickly from her anaesthetic too.....after 10 minutes she was drinking juice, after 25 minutes she was scoffing sandwiches, crisps and a chocolate bar, and after and hour she was asking if she could go to the hospital outdoor play area.

It was about an hour and a half afterwards that the doctor came and told us there were NO VARICES!!!! I have had this worry in the back of my mind for so long that it is hard to believe it has been put to rest for now. Praise God!

We are still left with a nagging little worry. The doctor decided to take some biopsy samples of the gastrointestinal tract during the endoscopy. We are not entirely clear on the reasoning for this, whether it is routine or not, and what they may or may not be looking for. I am not good at coming up with questions when I have surprise news, so I didn't say much apart from 'I see' which I don't really. The biopsy results will take a while to come back (possibly a couple of weeks) and Dr McKiernan is away at the moment so I'm not sure when we will be able to find out more. I don't have her blood results (I did ask and it was agreed to, but the doc obviously didn't remember and neither did I until after we left) so I will be ringing tomorrow to get those, and will see if I can find anything out then.

No varices! No varices! No varices!