as an update for those i haven't talked to yet: i'm not sure whether i posted about con's GERD here or not, so here's the background, in brief--
his reflux was not well controlled on meds & he was losing weight (pounds of it) despite being on enough pre.vacid for a grown man, so we got referred to a surgeon for a fundoplica.tion as a last resort. (fundoplic.ation= scary stomach surgery, with a large chance of being only a temporary fix & an awful recovery for conrad.) when we saw the surgeon, he had miraculously gained a little weight back & bc the risks of this surgery are so great for such a little guy, (he's very small, the recurence rate is close to 90% for kids who have a fundo.plication before age 2, general anethesia is esepcially dangerous for babies with GERD, the recovery is long & really awful bc it would impact his entire digestive system, & the list goes on), the surgeon advocated waiting another 6 mos to make a decision. as long as we can keep him comfortable on the pre.vacid & get him back on a normal growth curve, we can wait. there's no guarantee he won't need the surgery in the future, but the older he is the safer it will be.
anyways-- the kid is now on a high fat diet to gain weight.
problem: high fat & reflux are a BAD combination, & the new diet brought the GERD back in force, with all of its nastiest symptoms & lots of pain for conrad.
thanks to some wonderful friends & lots of research, we (i think) have the boy on a program that actually works!!! we front load the fatty stuff-- cream in his milk, ranch dressing at lunch (yup, ranch! apparently preemie taste buds hate bland & he has done MUCH better eating since we've spiced up his chow), & lost of snacks in the morning & early afternoon, & then we remove the high fat/high cal stuff for dinner & bedtime snacks. so far-- minimal puking & only occasional mild reflux attacks, & he seems MUCH more comfortable.
i'm really hopefuly this will work & we can get him gaining again... so please, keep fingers crossed, rub a lucky rabbbit's foot, or just think some "healthy kid" vibes for him!
Showing posts with label reflux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reflux. Show all posts
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
sticks & stones break my bones, but GERD makes me cry.
i broke my ankle. it's a hairline fracture, but it's a fracture & i walked on it ALL week in arlington & DC last week. today i gave up tho, bc it now hurts so bad i can't chase the little dudes around anymore, & spent all afternoon in dr's offices while people tried to tell me it hurts bc i'm pregnant. i finally pitched a total hissy fit & demanded an x-ray & eval by a non-OB, & sure enough it's totally unrelated to me being preggo. duh. this isn't my 1st pg, & i was the queen of swollen appendages with the boys, so i'm pretty sure i know what a pg-swollen ankle feels like. sigh.
so now i'm in an air-cast & supposed to be "off my feet". HA. we'll see how that goes. mostly it just hurts & i don't know what i'm going to do to stay off my feet.
in even worse news, conrad gained ZERO since his last dr. visit, & the puking has returned depite the prevacid. after an appt today & a big pow-wow with our pedi. & his partner (both of whom specialize in this stuff) they think he's a candidate for surgery. basically, it's really bad that he's not gaining & is in fact losing weight, that we can't take him off medicines ever without making things much worse, & that there's been no improvement in his reflux, (which is now offically diagnosed as GERD), since birth.
so we got a referral to a pediatric surgeon who will get the final call. i'm praying we have other options available before we have to resort to surgery, bc it's not minor stuff this time. it's inpatient, requires rehab & abdominal surgery HURTS. i'm super scared just thinking of him having to go through this. we're waiting on the surgery folks to call & set up a consult, & in the meantime if anyone wants to send some good thoughts, vibes or prayers conrad's way, we'd be grateful.
so now i'm in an air-cast & supposed to be "off my feet". HA. we'll see how that goes. mostly it just hurts & i don't know what i'm going to do to stay off my feet.
in even worse news, conrad gained ZERO since his last dr. visit, & the puking has returned depite the prevacid. after an appt today & a big pow-wow with our pedi. & his partner (both of whom specialize in this stuff) they think he's a candidate for surgery. basically, it's really bad that he's not gaining & is in fact losing weight, that we can't take him off medicines ever without making things much worse, & that there's been no improvement in his reflux, (which is now offically diagnosed as GERD), since birth.
so we got a referral to a pediatric surgeon who will get the final call. i'm praying we have other options available before we have to resort to surgery, bc it's not minor stuff this time. it's inpatient, requires rehab & abdominal surgery HURTS. i'm super scared just thinking of him having to go through this. we're waiting on the surgery folks to call & set up a consult, & in the meantime if anyone wants to send some good thoughts, vibes or prayers conrad's way, we'd be grateful.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
An Everday Update
boys: sleeping, N: running, me: waiting to pump. yay pumping. :P
So the jury is still out on how Con is doing on the prevacid. N thinks he's better, I think if he's better it's a marginal improvement, but his check up isn't until Wednesday, so we'll wait & see. We're going to have the doc check on Val as well, as he has started projectile puking an entire feeding periodically, but often enough for the "nurse hotline" (really the after hours triage for our pedi.) to want us to have him checked out, so we're hoping both guys are ok. GI problems in babies really suck, since if they aren't eating well everything pretty much goes to pot. So far we've headed off major trouble, I just hope things continue to be just minor hiccups, or nothing at all.
Random poll: How worried is everyone about the swine flu? I have to admit, it has me pretty paranoid, especially after both our pedi & my OB gave us warnings last week about keeping the boys home & being extra cautious. I know it's not in every state yet, but it's been found in our state (& in our area) & it scares the snot out of me, since the guys are still so new. (Their due date was yesterday, btw-- their adjusted age is now 1 day!!)
So the jury is still out on how Con is doing on the prevacid. N thinks he's better, I think if he's better it's a marginal improvement, but his check up isn't until Wednesday, so we'll wait & see. We're going to have the doc check on Val as well, as he has started projectile puking an entire feeding periodically, but often enough for the "nurse hotline" (really the after hours triage for our pedi.) to want us to have him checked out, so we're hoping both guys are ok. GI problems in babies really suck, since if they aren't eating well everything pretty much goes to pot. So far we've headed off major trouble, I just hope things continue to be just minor hiccups, or nothing at all.
Random poll: How worried is everyone about the swine flu? I have to admit, it has me pretty paranoid, especially after both our pedi & my OB gave us warnings last week about keeping the boys home & being extra cautious. I know it's not in every state yet, but it's been found in our state (& in our area) & it scares the snot out of me, since the guys are still so new. (Their due date was yesterday, btw-- their adjusted age is now 1 day!!)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The BBC & Baby Puke
The boys are (fingers crossed) asleep for now so N & I are hanging with the birds & catching up on last week's Dangerous Catch. (I love this show... no idea why watching dudes fish for crab is so compelling, but it is!) In our hours in front of the TV holding babies, we've also discovered the joys of BBC America. I am now totally addicted to their cooking shows. We are Top Chef junkies, but since the season ended, we've been in food tv withdrawal, & BBC has some awesomely English food shows. Last Restaurant Standing (like Top Chef, but with restaurants) & The F Word are really fun. Or maybe we're just so sleep deprived the accent alone is enough to entertain us. It's possible. & now Val is crying, so I'll have to finish this later...
a day later & I'm back, typing & watching (what else?) The F Word on the BBC. Love it.
The guys are sleeping, although Conrad has had a really rough few days. His reflux has gotten so bad, we took him back into the doc yesterday. Poor guy has been screaming, puking & eating non-stop. He's been so tired from screaming & puking that he falls asleep during feeds & then pukes up half his food, & is hungry again almost right away. So now he's on prevacid once a day & we're supposed to see some improvement by the weekend, but so far it's not been any better. So N & I are exhausted & Conrad is still pretty miserable, which sucks. Really hoping this works... I hate seeing my baby so distraught. On the upside, the holding after feeds & tilted crib are working well for Val, so we're about 50% on combating the reflux right now, although with the screaming & lack of sleep it sure feels like the reflux is winning.
a day later & I'm back, typing & watching (what else?) The F Word on the BBC. Love it.
The guys are sleeping, although Conrad has had a really rough few days. His reflux has gotten so bad, we took him back into the doc yesterday. Poor guy has been screaming, puking & eating non-stop. He's been so tired from screaming & puking that he falls asleep during feeds & then pukes up half his food, & is hungry again almost right away. So now he's on prevacid once a day & we're supposed to see some improvement by the weekend, but so far it's not been any better. So N & I are exhausted & Conrad is still pretty miserable, which sucks. Really hoping this works... I hate seeing my baby so distraught. On the upside, the holding after feeds & tilted crib are working well for Val, so we're about 50% on combating the reflux right now, although with the screaming & lack of sleep it sure feels like the reflux is winning.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
We Smell Like Baby Puke
yum.
:P
the guys (con on left, val on right) in the ducky bibs & hats my aunt sent. they were both all kicky-pants when we took this, busy chewing on each other's fingers. :)
Thursday, April 16, 2009
reflux & daddy woes
Warning-- this is a pretty pissy vent-- please don't take offense, it's not directed at anyone here.
N is going back to work (or at least he REALLY REALLY wants to) on the 4th & I am having panic attacks about it. I think we're going to start sleeping in shifts, but how on god's green earth am I going to feed 2 babies, diaper 2 babies, hold 2 babies, clean 2 babies, do laundry (this is an every day necessity for the boys), eat, take care of the critters & remain semi-human? (Practical suggestions only here-- please don't tell me how perfectly normal it is to feel all of that & how we'll get through it eventually-- of course I know it's normal & we'll survive, but those thoughts offer absolutely NO help or comfort right now.)
For the reflux, we've tipped their cribs, (not sure if this is helping yet or not) but during the day we can't tilt the pack n play, & only have 1 bassinet, so we can't tilt them during the day, & N for unknown reasons is refusing to get another bassinet or swings/bouncers appropriate for small babies (we have some that will work when the boys are older already) so that they can be tilted during/after meals & I can be hands-free for a bit. (We're supposed to hold them upright for 20-40 minutes after every feeding to help keep their food down.) When you're on your own, this makes feeding both boys a 2 hr process. & then I have to pump. (we're at 2 &1/2 hrs now) & since the guys eat every 3 hrs, I really don't have the foggiest idea how N expects me to make this schedule work by myself. He seems to have no idea why I'm worried about being on my own & thinks I need to just suck it up. & I probably do, but for now I'm mostly just freaking out & randomly really angry that he seems to think I should just be able to magically handle this all with a smile so he can escape to work. (Sorry to be a whiny pain guys, but please-- don't tell me how "normal" this is....if I hear another word about how "normal" this is from some one who never dealt with crazy screaming reflux or multiples, I might lose it.)
if you made it this far, thanks for reading. The guys are doing great, & cute as ever! I'll post some new pics once I get them uploaded.
N is going back to work (or at least he REALLY REALLY wants to) on the 4th & I am having panic attacks about it. I think we're going to start sleeping in shifts, but how on god's green earth am I going to feed 2 babies, diaper 2 babies, hold 2 babies, clean 2 babies, do laundry (this is an every day necessity for the boys), eat, take care of the critters & remain semi-human? (Practical suggestions only here-- please don't tell me how perfectly normal it is to feel all of that & how we'll get through it eventually-- of course I know it's normal & we'll survive, but those thoughts offer absolutely NO help or comfort right now.)
For the reflux, we've tipped their cribs, (not sure if this is helping yet or not) but during the day we can't tilt the pack n play, & only have 1 bassinet, so we can't tilt them during the day, & N for unknown reasons is refusing to get another bassinet or swings/bouncers appropriate for small babies (we have some that will work when the boys are older already) so that they can be tilted during/after meals & I can be hands-free for a bit. (We're supposed to hold them upright for 20-40 minutes after every feeding to help keep their food down.) When you're on your own, this makes feeding both boys a 2 hr process. & then I have to pump. (we're at 2 &1/2 hrs now) & since the guys eat every 3 hrs, I really don't have the foggiest idea how N expects me to make this schedule work by myself. He seems to have no idea why I'm worried about being on my own & thinks I need to just suck it up. & I probably do, but for now I'm mostly just freaking out & randomly really angry that he seems to think I should just be able to magically handle this all with a smile so he can escape to work. (Sorry to be a whiny pain guys, but please-- don't tell me how "normal" this is....if I hear another word about how "normal" this is from some one who never dealt with crazy screaming reflux or multiples, I might lose it.)
if you made it this far, thanks for reading. The guys are doing great, & cute as ever! I'll post some new pics once I get them uploaded.
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