Endoscopy

Great news! Elle's blood results came back and her kidneys are fine. What a relief, one less thing to be worried about. We have scheduled her endoscopy for this Wednesday. They are not going to completely sedate her so her recovery will be shorter I think. It is an out patient procedure, so I'm not too worried. I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hand I hope they find everything to be okay. On the other hand, if they don't find anything then there is nothing to be fixed. My understanding is this is the last step, so if they don't find anything they are just hoping she will grow out of it. I just don't understand how she is supposed to grow at all when she spits up half of her meal, and when her symptoms are at their worst, she doesn't eat. I guess we will just take it one day at a time.

Blah blah blah.....enough of the medical stuff. Elle is amazing. She is gaining more and more personality each day. Yesterday she went to the park and sat under a tree. It was so fun. She really loves grass! I'm lame and I didn't bring my camera, but she looked very cute. She is so fun, I spend most of my day laughing at her. I will be better and I will post some pictures very soon. Wow I haven't posted any pictures is a long time. Watch out there are some very cute pictures coming your way soon.

Where to go from here.

Today Elle went down to Children's Hospital for her consultation with a GI doc. I think it went pretty well. We did not learn what exactly is wrong, but we did learn what steps to take. The doctor thinks there are a few things that could be going on. First, she could have a pretty severe form of reflux that she will simply out grow eventually. Second, she could be experiencing some side effects from her constipation medication (so we are switching that immediately). Third, she could be having some inflammation in her esophagus causing the discomfort. For that, she will need an appointment to have a procedure called an endoscopy. This procedure sounds pretty safe, so we are not too concerned. What they would do is give her some Valium, then have her swallow a super small tube that will be inserted into her intestines. They will check the walls for any abnormalities and clip off a couple samples to have biopsied. We were informed it is completely painless. The fourth option could be a more rare kidney problem. Ryan and I will take her in this week for a simple blood test to hopefully rule that out.

Wow that was a lot of information. So this is where we go from here. To improve her growth we will put formula in her bottle then water (to make it more concentrated). When her symptoms get pretty bad we are going to give her a 1/2 tsp of Maalox or Mylanta. We are getting her blood drawn this week to check her kidneys. If things do not improve we will get her endoscopy done in 2-3 weeks. So that is the official update. Here are here are her vitals as of today:

Weight: 11 lbs 14 oz
Length: 24.8 in
Head Circumference: 15.2 in

Double Digits

I can't believe how quickly time goes by. Elle will be 6 months in 9 days. That is half a year people!!! We took her to her 6 month check-up a little early and other than her eating issues she is doing really well. She is now 11 lbs 3 oz. She has arrived in the double digits! She is 24.5 inches. Elle is still very small for her age but she is following the curve so her doctor is not concerned. Her height is pretty good. She may follow her Daddy and be a tall girl. How fun!

Elle has been on some special hypoallergenic formula (really expensive) to see if her discomfort goes away. It doesn't seem to be working. The next step will be a call to Children's Hospital to see if there is any tests they want done at Kaiser. If there are no tests Elle will probably be admitted into Children's. The doctor thinks she would need to stay over night to have a scope done that would need to be down her throat for 24 hours. Although this thought freaks me out, I think I am ready. Elle is just the sweetest thing ever and I know she deserves to be comfortable even if that means a scary hospital trip. I think Ryan and I are just eager to know what is going on and what we can do about it. I should be getting a call from the doctor today to see the next steps will be. I will let you all know soon.

PS- We went public so you no longer need an account or an invite to see the blog, so if you have been having trouble with commenting/access it should all be solved. I also "think" I set up an RSS feed, thanks for your help Ami.