Sunday, February 11, 2007

The poor girl has GER (acid reflux)

We found out last week that Graycen has Gastroesophageal Reflux (otherwise known as GER, GERD, or acid reflux) Most infants have it to some degree. Some worse than others. Well, Graycen has it kind of bad! Poor baby has been spitting up a lot more than usual, has been a lot more irritable, coughing, trouble breathing, crying after spitting up...etc..the list goes on! We went to the doctor to have it checked out last week and she referred us to see someone at Children's Hospital to have a Barium swallow or upper GI series done. This was heartbreaking. First of all, our appointment wasn't until 3:00pm, she couldn't eat for 3 hours before the appointment. Well, she didn't eat that well that morning and then she fell asleep. So, she probably should have eaten around 12:30 with the way she worked it, but it was too late and she was sleeping so I couldn't give her a hold-over bottle before noon. She was very fussy from about 12:45 until we got there. The whole car ride there - SCREAMING!. It broke my heart to hear her cry and scream like that - I knew she wanted to eat - but I couldn't feed her. My poor baby. We get there, check in, wait. We go into the x-ray room. The first thing I spot is a tiny little board-like table that had receiving blankets on it, a head brace and straps. All I can think of is my little baby strapped to that thing. They ask us to get her undressed and lay her on the little table. They strap her in with her arms above her head - at this point I could no longer watch. (yes, we were in the room) They dimmed the lights, turned on the x-ray machine, brought it over Graycen. They were taking pictures and David and I could see them on the monitor behind the glass wall. We were seeing her little lungs, her ribs and her tiny little stomach - it was amazing. Then came the really bad part. Graycen was doing fairly well until they whipped out the feeding tube. They had to put it down into her stomach and feed Barium through it. They did that and Graycen screamed the entire time. Our hearts were breaking listening to her cry like that. I just wanted to hold her. David couldn't even talk anymore. We waited and watched the monitor. We were able to see them filling her stomach and then emptying it. It was weird. Finally, the lights came on and we heard the best words ever "you can come get her now" we couldn't get up fast enough. We held her - oh it felt so nice to be able to protect and comfort her again. Doctor comes over and says "yep, little girl just has some reflux - your doctor will call you." Ok, we came down for you to tell us something we already know. I don't know what we were expecting her to tell us, but somehow that just didn't seem to cut it. :( End of story - Graycen has acid reflux and has to take Zantac for it 2 times a day (it tastes disgusting) Hopefully she grows out of it soon - most do by the age of 6 months - 1 year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My poor sweet Graycie. Grandma Jones misses you and wishes she could be there to hold you and rock you. Whisper "I love you" in your ear. I will have Mommy and Daddy give you a hug and kiss for me. Lots and lots of love to my sweet granddaughter. A special card is coming in the mail just for you from me.

LutherLiz said...

Oh that sounds horrible! I'm glad that she is ok, but I can imagine the heartache of it all.

I had a friend whose baby had it done earlier this year and they needed to confirm that it was reflux and not something worse or serious, so I'm guessing that having it be reflux is really good news. Still, it must have been horrible to witness.

Give Graceyn a Hug for me!