Owen's GI Visit

Yesterday was a long and eventful day!

Our friend Mrs. Snider came to help us with our doctor/zoo trip, so the boys were very excited. We loaded up and left the house bright and early to drive down to Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth.

Owen's GI doctor seemed very helpful and nice. He thinks that because Owen responded well to the new formula (Alimentum), that that strongly suggests that he has a dairy allergy. I'm still not clear on that point because he doesn't seem to have the usual dairy allergy symptoms. I was expecting the doctor to differentiate between an allergy and an intolerance, but he just talked about allergies. We will be clearing that issue up, though, because Owen had a blood test yesterday that tests for all food allergies. Anyway, Owen still seems to have reflux symptoms even though he has improved on the new formula. He still does a lot of "wet" sounding burps and wakes up from his naps screaming, sometimes up to 3 times per week. So... the doctor also wants to to an EGD (Esophagogastroduodenoscopy) where he (our actual doctor - not a tech!) will look at Owens esophagus for signs of reflux or allergy. He'll actually be able to tell if his esophagus shows damage from either thing and which it is. Also, he'll biopsy Owen's small intestine to test for Celiac Disease. Then, while they're in there, Owen will get a pH probe inserted down his nose. It's a little wire that will stay at the base of his esophagus for 24 hours to measure how much he is actually refluxing and how acidic it is. This will all happen under general anesthesia on April 19th. Whew! We're not looking forward to sedating our little baby, but we're glad that we can (Lord willing) get some concrete data and know whether to treat him with changes in diet or changes in medicine. The doctor didn't want to just randomly try things without having some data first, and I must say I agreed with that!

We needed to go to the Lab in the hospital's specialty building for the blood test, so we went ahead and went over there since it was just a couple buildings away. The parking garage was packed, and we took the first spot we could find on the top level. When we walked in the building entrance, we were right in the waiting area for the lab! I was very thankful that God provided us with a parking space right there, especially since we had to go back to the van a couple times for formula and blankies.

By the time we finished at the zoo, we were all exhausted! I didn't get any good zoo pictures to post. Next time we'll go to the zoo when we can start earlier in the day and have more energy, but at least we were able to see a lot of animals, and the boys had a lot of fun.

So, all in all, I think we're on the right track with Owen. He is eating better and gaining weight better now. We would appreciate prayer for his procedure on April 19th!