It has been a little over a year since Amanda had the surgery to reconnect her remaining small bowel to her colon at the recommendation of her doctors in Georgetown. They made this recommendation for two reasons.  After examining her, they thought she might be a good candidate for another treatment they have had success with on other patients and wanted her to give it a try before attempting a small bowel transplant. Also, small bowel transplants are a last resort because the anti-rejection drugs given afterwards greatly decrease a patient’s ability to fight infections and diseases.

After allowing her body to heal from the surgery and establishing a baseline of what her body could do on its own, Amanda started the treatment at the beginning of this year. The treatment is an injectable medicine called Gattex. It is a daily shot designed to thicken the walls of her remaining small bowel.  The goal is for her small bowel to gain surface area and be able to process and absorb enough calories and nutrients so that she no longer needs IV administered nutrition (total parenteral nutrition or TPN).  Since Amanda is only four foot eleven inches tall the doctors thought her caloric needs may be able to be met with this treatment.

We have seen some positive signs for Amanda.  She has gained weight for the past two weeks and her recent lab work was all good, even some labs that had been a little off since she had her surgery to remove most of her small bowel in December of 2021. Gaining weight on a very low fat, low sugar diet can be challenging, but we are finding ways.  We have discovered that many breads have very low fat, but a lot of calories, so a big bang for your buck. Another challenge is that Amanda really enjoys walking, even in the Texas heat.  Despite this she is currently two pounds away from her goal of 90 pounds to be able to have a reduction in her TPN!  We know this will be a long process, with some steps forward and some steps back.  We are praying that this plan will work for Amanda and these signs provide us with the hope that she will one day no longer need the TPN.