Endoscopy Day

Today Abby had her Gastroscopy procedure. We got to the hospital bright and early at 7 am for outpatient admission, then off to the procedure unit.

After a clear warning about the quality of Abby's veins, the nurses were able to find a good one for her IV and blood was drawn for labs after 4 sticks. Prayers were being lifted up not only by me during this yucky time, but also by the nurses! I was so thankful to see blood dripping into the little viles. I'm sure the neighboring patients were wondering why we were cheering and clapping behind our curtain.

Abby truly is a brave soul. I was so proud of her. She tolerated the Gastroscopy procedure really well and didn't need any extra support while being sedated. The GI doc discussed what he saw and explained that her esophagus actually looks a bit better than what he saw last October! I could tell by looking at the pictures he took. He added that just because the esophagus looks better now after 6+ months of J-feedings doesn't mean that she isn't still having terrible reflux. We discussed the Fundo surgery again and he pretty much left that up to us. If her symptoms remain constant and she continues to seem uncomfortable then we should consider it.

The pH probe was placed after the procedure while she was still asleep. Another big praise... one less thing to stress her out. You can see in the pictures the tube taped to her nose and cheek... and notice how cute she looks even with it in!

Poor baby has to have elbow restraints on both arms to keep her from pulling the tube out. The nurses were surprised how quickly she was able to reach for the tube as soon as she woke up. So for the next 18 hrs she will be an unhappy, thumb-less little girl. For those of you who know how much Abby loves sucking her thumb, this is a problem!

After all that excitement we headed over to meet a new doctor added to Abby's list. She was very nice and very thorough! Naturally our discussion was long as we described Abby's history including NICU stay and all the surgeries. This visit focussed mainly on her seizure activity and patterns we've noticed. She increased the VNS settings and changed a few details about her meds.

We got to see the EEG print out while the doctor explained the results. Abby had several spiking episodes occurring in the right parietal lobe lasting several seconds. It is this type of brain activity that produces seizures if it keeps firing for more than 10 seconds. We shouldn't see any clinical signs (or seizure like activity) when these spikes are short lasting, like what we saw on her test. She pointed out 4 or 5 different episodes during the 1 hr test where this spiking was noted. It was nice to get a visual and an explanation of what they are looking for during the EEG. Fascinating but heart heavy information to hear.

As usual, Josiah hammed it up with the nurses. They thought he was funny. He remembered where all the stuffed animals sit on different desks from last weeks' visit!