A 3 Week Trial

We went back to the GI Specialist today for a follow up appointment.

You may remember that we did an Upper GI Series last week. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the upper digestive system was all developed correctly. "A few episodes of deep penetration were observed during active swallow" and "an episode of reflux to the upper esophagus" was observed within than two minutes of eating. Thus they started him a prescription of Prevacid.

Ryan has lost 12 ounces since we were there last. Thus, the diagnosis "Failure to Thrive (FTT)" became official, simply meaning that Ryan is not growing at the rate he should. His growth curve has not only flattened out, but has actually started to drop. We had previously discussed that we may need to have a feeding tube surgically implanted into his stomach. However, since there are no abnormalities in the upper GI, we are going to try supplementing his normal eating schedule with a prescription formula. They would like for him to eat an additional 16 ounces of a high caloric, pre-digested, lactose free formula. We estimate that he is currently only eating about 16 ounces of breast milk each day. Thus, this will basically double the volume of food he's taking in. It should be interesting. We're going to try this for almost 3 weeks. If he doesn't gain weight, or has a negative reaction to it, then we'll have to revisit the idea of the feeding tube. But, we are hopeful.

We also changed the prescription for the reflux. It became obvious after about a week of using the Prevacid that it was making Ryan's tummy hurt. So, we're going to try a new prescription and see if that helps.

We are still waiting for the repeat bloodwork results to come back. They had the results; however, their computers were down so they couldn't view them. We know the original blood work showed:
BUN/Creatinine Ratio HIGH
Carbon Dioxide, Total LOW
Calcium, Serum, HIGH
Albumin, Serum HIGH
A/G Ratio HIGH

And, his urinalysis showed an Abnormal Trace of WBC Esterase

I don't even know what all of that means, but hopefully the repeat bood test & urinalysis will be clear of any concerns. We should hear back from the Dr's office later today or tomorrow.