Sunday, March 23, 2014

BWS - Abdominal Wall Defects

Most kids with BWS have some sort of abdominal wall defects.  Micaelyn was born with an omphalocele which had been surgically corrected by the time she was found as an orphan.  Unfortunately she was from a very poor remote part of China, and the repair that was done was not to the standards that would be expected here in America.  At her most recent visit with the geneticist it was suggested that we see a surgeon for an evaluation of her abdomen and possibly more surgery.  We have always thought her scar seemed odd, and the geneticist felt not only did the scar look bad but also that it looked very likely her abdominal muscles were never correctly joined.  Her exact words were, "It looks they just opened her up and shoved everything back in then closed her."  It is not an emergency situation so we are going to wait until summer to see the doctor since she has already missed a lot of school this year due to frequent sickness, doctor's appointments, ultrasounds, etc.

Elianna was born with only a mild umbilical hernia.  We do not believe it to be an issue as it has pretty much corrected itself, but we are closely monitoring it as she is developing a very noticeable dimple above her belly button.

The best way to get an understanding of what an omphalocele is is to do an image search on google.  Click here to take you there.

In lieu of pictures of my girls abdomens, here are a few random pictures of them.





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