Sam's health

After a particularly volatile sickness event back in December, I told the pediatrician here that I had had enough. I couldn't continue to change sheets three times in a month, even if it was 3-5 weeks apart now. (fabulous considering how many times I had to do it in a single week when he was a baby)

Well, we finally had the appointment iwth the pediatric GI this past week. We did a full medical review starting with his failure to gain appropriately, all the formulas we tried, the barium swallow at 8 months, everything. We talked about whether Sam had headaches, the timing of the vomiting (almost always after he'd been in bed for a while), the foods Sam would actually eat, and even what might stress Sammy out. (um.....how about reading the last paragraph of the previous blog entry)

Anyway, he ordered a full blood draw to include food allergies, thyroid, celiac and some other things.

He also has scheduled a full endoscopy inthe OR. This is because it's safer in the OR for a child of his age and with his delays. After the scope is done, they will insert a tube in Sam's nose that will go down the back of his throat and esophagus all the way to the little opening. It's a 24-hour probe that will track how many times, if any, that Sam refluxes. Sometimes, they don't do it at all even though there's other signs (hence the reasoning for doing it at the same time as the endo). Other times, kids will have repeated refluxes. Anthing over 50 is considered "failing".

The dr's best explanation for Sam is either night reflux or allergy-related reflux. Between the blood draw and the two tests scheduled for April 27, we should find out which it is, or possibly something entirely different.

At the same time, we have also cut out nightshades from Sam's diet. He no longer eats potatoes, tomatoes, or other foods from that family. We did this to see if it would have an impact on his eczema and after a very scary incident that I personally believe tied back to a fresh, raw tomato. His legs are smoother and the eczema patches are relatively gone. I haven't been great about reading labels, but just the elimation of fries, spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce have made a huge difference.