|
The Story of Andrew
Andrew was born on August 17th, 2004 at 11:10 p.m., weighing in at 7 pounds 9 ounces and at a length of 19 1/2 inches. That was the second most exciting day of my life, as Andrew was our second born.
Everything seemed fine in the beginning, or so we thought. Looking back to that day and realizing now everything we have gone through, you start putting pieces together. When we were still in the hospital, Andrew was not eating very well at all, and I clearly remember the nurses telling me, You need to push him to eat, Stacy...Just keep pushing him. I addressed my concerns on this but in the end, they still discharged us and sent us home like they didn't care; it was my problem to deal with.
When we arrived home, Andrew was suddenly comfort feeding. He would eat, and it would take me forever to get 4 measly ounces in him, then when it was all done, he'd throw every ounce of that back up and want to eat again. He'd scream, crawl up my chest, and arch his back away from me, which scared me to death as I kept thinking I am going to drop him if this doesn't stop. I addressed my concerns about this to his pediatrician, who continuously said to me, You have a puker, just deal with it. I'd always leave there thinking Zachary never puked like this (my now 7-year-old boy), Zachary never ate like this, Zachary never screamed like this and so on.
I always knew something was wrong with him, and it was just not normal newborn stuff. We always had to keep Andrew upright throughout the day. In fact, he spent pretty much every waking moment inside his bouncy seat, or in my arms. He was a very high needs child, meaning that I was pretty much held prisoner in my own home for the first year of his life, feeding him and cleaning up puke. No one ever wanted to hold him, and they acted as if they were going to die if they got puked on, and he did that A LOT. He had to nap in his bouncy seat or in his swing, but it was weird because he never had problems sleeping at night. He'd sleep on his left side in the bassinet or in his crib, which I later learned he was smarter then we thought. He knew sleeping on that side would reduce the reflux at night.
When his first birthday was approaching, I remember looking at my husband crying and saying, Why won't anyone listen to us? Most kids don't puke after they eat at this age. At Andrew's one year check up, he was Approximately 17 pounds and FTT (failure to thrive) before I got anyone to listen to me and see there truly was a big problem. I remember his pediatrician looking at me when he came in the room saying Oh, I guess we should start some testing. I wanted to smack him right in the face--I'd been trying to tell him that for a year. Andrew was put on a trial of Zantac at that point and we were sent for an Upper GI. When he had the upper GI, the technician kept saying what a great job Andrew was doing and he is drinking the barium so well. But later I found out that the doctor used my son as an excuse in the report stating, The patient was uncooperative, so in other words, the upper GI did us no good. It didn't give us any kind of answer. We were then referred to a GI at the Children's Hospital of Michigan. We had to wait 4 months to get into this doctor. At this point Andrew was about 18 pounds, and the Zantac wasn't doing him any good. When we finally got into the doctor, she did labs and scheduled Andrew for a Gastroesophagoduodenoscopy. After he went under for that, the doctor came out nearly 2 hours later to let us know she did biopsies to send in and from what she could see, it confirmed he had GERD, but that he also was suffering from Chronic Gastritis from being untreated and undiagnosed for so long. So at this point, he was now 17 months old, and finally diagnosed. Andrew was then started on Prevacid and Zantac, and and we also started CIB and polycose as his supplements along with Prelief to put on his foods. We didn't stay with that GI for long. She was horrible at returning phone calls, and I felt she just wasn't being aggressive enough for how sick he was.
So then we were off to see his new GI, who I really liked. He was very thorough in the beginning and really listened to all we had been through. He then started Andrew on Reglan 3 times a day, kept him on the Prevacid and all of his supplements, but also added Mylanta Supreme in between meals and at bedtime. He also sent us off for some more testing. After all of those medications and supplements, Andrew continued to puke but was definitely slowing down, and just before his second birthday, he turned to a silent refluxer. I was thrilled we were done with the puking. but in turn it still breaks my heart to know he has not yet beaten GERD at 27 months old. He often regurgitates after eating, but instead of it coming out, he swallows and gasps.
Andrew is now up to 26 pounds and is doing pretty good. He is still taking Prevacid, but we recently stopped his supplements, as his doctor felt he was well enough now to hold his own weight. We also stopped Reglan to see how he does with eating. He has definitely slowed down, and if he doesn't pick it up, he will need to go back on it.
I have learned so much down this road and would love to offer anyone some insight. Just PM me if you have any questions at all.
Written by: Stacy, DrewsMom
Read more about Children's Stories:
Zac's Reflux Success Story,
Noah's Story,
Emma Claire's Story,
Evan's Story,
Owen's Story,
Raeden's Story,
Olivia's Story,
Hannah's Story,
Samuel and Jennifer's Stories
»View all articles«
Other Links
,
|
|
