A Long Afternoon

Sorry I didn't update on Thursday, it was just a long afternoon. There were long waits in the waiting rooms. Ellie really did well when Dr. Ostlie pulled out her j-tube. And, yes, he literally pulled it out. Dave said he did it quickly. I had my eyes closed while I held her hands and waited for a cork popping sound and screams of bloody murder. Didn't happen. She cried but not as loud as I anticipated and there was no cork popping sound. He put in her button and it looks sooo much better than the contraption we had on there. He also said that we could go off the Prilosec (antacid) now. He said she can reflux, but that she no longer has the area that secretes acid, so any reflux would not hurt her. So now we are totally off medicine!!! Dr. Ostlie also snipped some stitches that were poking through on her scar. Even though they are disolvable, some do manage to work there way out. Finally, he told us that we can take her off her feedings for an hour before oral feeds to try to get her hungry. He also said we could increase her continuous feeds a few mls after oral feeds to make up for any lost calories. We want her to continue gaining weight. As for her weight....you know, all these scales are different. They had her at 16lbs 1 oz....of course, two weeks ago she was 16lbs 6oz on our Peds scale. I can't imagine that she's losing weight. I'll try to get her weighed this week on the Peds scale again.



So after all that, we had to go to Radiology which was another hour long wait. We didn't get called back until 4 pm. Our appointment was at 3 pm and she hadn't eaten since 11 am. Surprisingly, she was doing fairly well. So the technitian takes us to the room and gets Ellie all set up. Setting up means she is laying on a board with a strap across her legs, a strap across her chest under her arms and with her arms pulled up over her head and strapped. She was not happy. Then she said the radiologist would be in soon and left. We waited about 7 minutes while she cried and we tried to soothe her. I finally got the tech and asked if we could release her arms since she was so unhappy and she did and left the room. I hear them calling for the the radiologist to come to our room over the speaker. The tech comes in and says she'll be in soon. About 10 minutes later and my singing Ave Maria about 10 times (this is what calms her down), I go track the tech down again. I explain how uncomfortable this is for our baby and she says the radiologist is reading our file and will be in soon. So she does arrive soon and they put the contrast in her button site. On the screen you can see the contrast inside her body and how it is moving its way through the intestine. The radiologist then looks at Dave and I and says, "where exactly did he tell you this was placed?" So much for reading Ellie's file. We explain about the pull-up and then she understands and tells us there are no leaks. Hooray! And believe me, Ellie was so happy to get out of that contraption and start eating.

Her site is still a bit sore but she's doing better each day. There's a little oozing coming from the spot but Dr. Ostlie says it's fine. Last night she threw up in the middle of the night, but it was just saliva...this happens sometimes. Of course it was enough to make me paronoid and I kept checking her color, her head to see if it was warm, her tummy for swelling and her j-site. Of course she's fine. Well, she's crying, gotta go.