We had a visit with David's gastrointerologist yesterday morning. We only have to see him once a year, which is nice. We started seeing him because we needed someone to monitor David's feeds and his gtube site for us. We feel like this doctor is one who tries his best to look after David's best interests.
I was nervous going into this appointment. I knew that we'd been having some digestive issues for a few months now with David. His throwing up has gotten worse rather than better. I knew that we could come out of this appointment with news that was less than favorable. But I still tried to be optimistic.
We went in and explained the situation. He is almost sure that David's reflux has gotten worse. Which could mean that he's on the road to surgery to correct it eventually. We would have to run some tests and monitor his condition over the months to come to make this decision. I already told him that I would NOT be repeating the pH probe that was so unsuccessful 2 years ago. He understood after what we'd been through with that particular test. To make a long story short, the pH probe has to be done while hospitalized and involves a tube being placed in the nose and down the throat. It sits at the top of the stomach. We battled getting the probe into place with David. After about 10 of 24 hours, it all ended with David throwing the probe up and it was hanging out of his mouth. The nurse had only seen it one other time in her 18 years of doing it. My child is sooooooo talented.
Anyway-that is one of the two possible issues. The next one's solution is the most bizarre to me. David could possibly have a stomach emptying issue. The way to test for this is actually an easy one. They would just have to observe David with one of his feedings and watch it by putting a radioactive dye in with the feed. If that's the case, he could be simply throwing up because we're stuffing him too much. One way to fix this on some children is to put them on a slow drip to feed overnight. This is not an option for David. He does not sleep well at night and that could be a huge hazard for him.
So what could the other option be????? Well, the answer would be botox. Yes, botox. He would be put out every 2-3 months to have botox injected internally into his stomach. This is relatively new, but they are having success with it. I guess it allows the stomach to digest the contents much more quickly. The reason I don't like this is because David does not do well with anesthsia. It makes him super sick and to have to have this done every 2-3 months would take it's toll on him, myself, and Michael.
The good news we gained from this appointment is that while David has been throwing up much more, he hasn't developed pneumonia recently. And his weight is up along with his BMI from last year. He is beginning to follow a much more healthy curve. Not the curve of an 11 year old, but a curve none the less. So the GI doc wants to wait on anything right now. David is doing so well clinically that he would hate to rock the boat. Instead we will be keeping in touch on a quarterly basis with the office to let them know where David stands. I am happy with that news.
So until we know more, I will just continue to enjoy the rest of the summer with my boys. Pretty soon I will have a little bit of "empty nest" syndrome since Kyle will be flying the coop into kindergarten. Hopefully we can wait on any procedures to be done until next summer. That is my wish. In the meantime, if we see you somewhere and my kid tosses his cookies (through no fault of his own) I apologize in advance :)
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