Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Family Fun


Families are so wonderful! Last weekend we headed to TN and enjoyed some fun-in-the sun with ours.

Special time with Grandma, Papa and Aunt Connie, and a trip to Frozen Head State Park with cousins Anna and Norah. The kids enjoyed blowing bubbles and throwing rocks in the stream. I think they were more interested in the water than they were in the slides!







One last visit with Bill, Shannon and little Maddie rounded out our mini vacation. The "boys" (Patrick and Bill) took off Thursday to ride ATV's in the mountains. From the looks of their clothes, they had a blast in the mud! (literally) We were just glad they came back in one piece.


Abby update:

The GI office called last week about Abby's Barium swallow test results. The nurse explained that they are treating her reflux as aggressively as possible at this point. She told us that if Abby continues to have symptoms or we can't decrease her feeding time and keep her at a good rate we would need to consider the Fundoplication surgery.

Patrick spoke with the GI nurse again today about Abby's continued symptoms (moaning, burping then pulling hair and acting very upset, etc) and requested that we look into it further.

At this point it's not a question of whether she is refluxing, but how much and how often. There were times today when I literally heard her burp, saw the bubbles in her mouth and proceeded to watch her cough from it. Meanwhile she started pulling her hair and putting her fingers in her mouth to bite. It is incredibly draining to observe this happening over and over again... with nothing in my power to help her.

In the back of my mind I'm wondering where in the world is this reflux coming from? She isn't being fed in her stomach any more so it must just be stomach juices. How could such a small girl pump out enough juice to cause such BIG problems?

I guess it's no different than when she was a 4 lb baby with the same symptoms. The hope was always that she would grow out of it.

Next Friday she is scheduled for another upper GI series to check her esophagitis and see if it has changed. While she is asleep for this procedure they will place a pH probe (NG) that will stay in her esophagus for 24 hours. It will be fun trying to keep that in... but at least she can wear it home this time.

We are praying for clarity and for wisdom in this decision. Hopefully these tests will give us a bigger picture. Only the Lord knows her needs, and only He knows how much we want to make her well. In the end, we trust that He will walk us through this dark place.