Fry Baby

Well, the tests today went quite well... better than I expected. First thing at 9 this morning was the pyloric stenosis test: Pyloric stenosis is a narrowing of the pylorus, the lower part of the stomach through which food and other stomach contents pass to enter the small intestine. When an infant has pyloric stenosis, the muscles in the pylorus have become enlarged to the point where food is prevented from emptying out of the stomach. She was not allowed any food three hours before the test, so she hadn't ate anything since 5:30 this morning. After the test, the informed me that she could only eat about two, maybe three ounces, and then nothing again until 1 p.m....

So we ventured to Rebecca's house of Coffee, I got a carmel vanilla cappuccino, and her a bottle, and we sat there for a while. After she ate a few ounces, we ventured off to finish the rest of our christmas shopping. Yes, I said the rest... other than Hunter, we are officially done.

We did some shopping, called Levi, met him for lunch, and that's when I thought it all was going to break loose with Lauren. She started fussing, then crying, so I propped her up in the cradle of my leg crossed, and gave her a pacifier. Lo and behold, she actually stayed pretty calm, and I was able to eat one handed.

We left there, and went on to wal-mart and she fell asleep, which was perfect because we only had 30 minutes to go. Finally we made it back to the hospital for the last test... delayed gastric emptying. Gastric Emptying Study: The baby is required to ingest a small amount of radioactive material which is followed by a special machine as it empties out of the stomach. This test will determine the length of time it takes the material to move from the stomach..

Basically to see how long it takes her stomach to empty it's contents. They place her up on a, for a lack of a better word, a platform that is about 2.5x2.5 feet. They put some of the radioactive substance in her bottle, and while she eats, the machine immediately begins to take pictures. All you see is a small white dot on a black screen that represents the radioactive material in her stomach. Over a period of 2 hours, the machine continually takes pictures, and gives a percentage of how much fluid has left her stomach. Ideally they want 50% gone after one hour. At one hour she was 44%, so nothing too drastic or slow...

Oh, and for those wondering, the radioactive material is very safe, in fact it's supposed to be better than if they had used the x-ray machine for that many times.

So I'm pretty sure she just has GERD, Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease... I'm anxious to talk to the dr. and see what the next step is.

I have a lot of people ask me what are her symptoms, why am I so worried... So I thought I would make this post very informative... Below are 23 of the symptoms listed for GERD, Lauren has at least 12 of those that I know of (I marked them with a red *) ... and just like with adults, if you don't treat this, it can cause damage.

Some symptoms of reflux or GERD include:

• constant or sudden crying or colic like symptoms *
  
• irritability and pain *
  
• poor sleep habits typically with frequent waking *
  
• arching their necks and back during or after eating * (this is most likely because the milk burns as it travels down the esophagus)
  
• spitting-up or vomiting *
  
• wet burp or frequent hiccups *
  
• frequent ear infections or sinus congestion
  
• refusing food or accepting only a few bites despite being hungry or the exact opposite requiring constant small meals or liquid *
  
• food/oral aversions
  
• anemia
  
• excessive drooling *
  
• running nose, sinus infections *
  
• swallowing problems, gagging, choking *
  
• chronic hoarse voice
  
• frequent red, sore throat without infection present
  
• apnea
  
• chronic ear infections
  
• respiratory problems—pneumonia, bronchitis, wheezing, asthma, night-time cough, aspiration *
  
• gagging themselves with their fingers or fist (sign of esophagitis) *
  
• poor weight gain, weight loss, failure to thrive
  
• erosion of dental enamel
  
• neck arching (Sandifer's Syndrome)
  
• bad breath

If anyone is interested, there is many websites that are informative to the disease, one I used to get the above information is http://www.infantrefluxdisease.com/gerd-overview.php

Well, I will leave you now this this horribly lengthy post, and get ready for bed.

Hope everyone is doing great!

Shannon