Tests and tubes

Randy has completed all his follow up tests from his last visit at the feeding team. They were pretty pleased with his weight gain and his eating, but not happy with his milk intake. The GI wanted to rule out any medical reasons for why he was not tolerating his bottle. He ordered a video swallow study and and EGD.

The video swallow basically took a picture as he ate puffs, purees, and drank some milk. They added some barium to these items so that it would show up on the x-ray. He did a good job, except with the bottles. He gobbled the items (he was starving because he had not eaten in 5 hours) and they went down well. He refused his bottle, so we had to use an open cup. The test showed that he had delayed swallowing with the thin liquids. He definitely refluxed, but did not aspirate. Aspirate is when you reflux and it goes into your lungs. The speech therapist said he protected his airway at all times.

The EGD took a picture of his throat, esophagus, stomach, and small intestine. He had to undergo anesthesia for this test. They took a camera hooked to a scope and put it down his throat while they took pictures. They also took some specimens of each of these areas and will send them to the lab. He wants to make sure all is well since he is well over a year and still suffering from reflux. The camera showed that all the areas looked good; that is a good indication that the Prevacid is doing a good job of protecting his body from the acid.

He also received ear tubes while he was under the anesthesia. The procedure was sooooo quick. Both procedures were done in less than 30 minutes. I am glad I went through with the tubes. The first ENT wanted to "wait and see". I did not feel comfortable with this because he had already failed three hearing screenings and I felt it was impacting his bottle feeding. The first ENT felt that it was totally unrelated to his bottle.

The ENT from the feeding team felt that the fluid in his ears could be impacting his bottle feeding and was not ok with his hearing being affected during this time of crucial speech development. He said that there was lots of fluid behind the ear and he drained them well before inserting the tubes. He was kind enough to let us get our ear check with our pediatrician in three weeks since we already have an appointment. This saves us an hour drive. If there is a problem, we are to call him though.

He is recovering wonderfully. He has eaten twice and taken a small milk and juice bottle. BTW, the children's hospital where we go lets you buy a bottle of Tylenol for $1 if your child was seen there or being discharged. You can get up to two bottles. Isn't that cool?!