Friday, June 18, 2010

Problems keep going

So the first choice of treatment was to start on pulmacort respules mixed with splenda packets ( I know, wierd!). He was on this new treatment for a about a week when he started having more pain, he was waking up screaming all night and not eating well. The doctor from Duke let us know that his secretions from his biopsies came back with a lactose deffiancy so we took out all lactose hoping to ease his pain.
In May we went to see Dr Hill, the head of pediatric gi at Brenner Children's hospital. He seemed to think that Zach was having some malabsorbtin issues with his pancreas so we did some more stool cultures to check for fat and lactaid in his stool. He also checked his thyroid level just to eliminate any hyperthyroid problems. Both tests came back normal and yet Zach was no better. He was still having lots of pain, diarrhea and a new symptom, vomiting almost everday. The doctors put him on prevacid for heartburn and mylanta four times a day.
When he went for his 15 month checkup at Dr. Young we found out he has fallen below the 3rd percentile for his age and height. We also had him allergy tested since EE can be caused by various food allergies. His allergy tests came back with him being allergic to beef, dairy, carrots, strawberries, cucumbers, peanuts, tree nuts, and cottonseed.
At his checkup with Dr Hill on June 7 he decided to redo an endoscopy and biopsies as well as pancreatic testing and secretion testing. He had his procedure on June 15 at Brenner's, I was a lot more prepared this time and was ok with him going under anesethia.
Now, we just wait and see what his biopsies show and what is going on with his pancreas.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

The problems begin

In February 2010, he started having diarrhea, 8-12 diapers a day. He went a couple of days with blood in his diapers so Dr. Young did stool cultures to check for blood, parasites, bacteria and viruses. All came back negitive except blood. He also put us on soy milk and bile salts, both did nothing and by now Zach was starting to have some stomach pains.
At his 12 month checkup, his weight hadn't changed since his 9 month appt which was surprising. So he was sent to a Ped GI docter here in Greensboro. Our first visit was not helpful nor did I like the doctor. He put Zach on an anti protazol medicine for 3 days. The next day Zach spiked a fever of 103 which went to 105 the next day and he became dehydarated so he was admitted to the hospital for fluids. He spent 4 days in the hospital. We went to see the GI doctor one more time and he wanted to just repeat stool cultures and call it a day. That was our last visit to him.
By now we are to the end of March and still having 8-12 dirty diapers a day. He was referred to Duke Childrens hospital GI doctors. Our first visit, April 2nd was very nice. The PA who we saw was very nice and ordered bloodwork, stool cultures and gave us some ideas.
A week later, bloodwork came back, he was anemic, had high sed rate, neg for celiac. She thought he was having IBD symptoms so she ordered an upper and lower endoscopy and barium xrays. The barium xrays were all normal and he did very well. He drank the barium from his bottle and slept through most of the test. For his upper and lower endoscopies he had to go under anesethia so no food for 24 hours. That was really hard on him seeing how the prep day was his brother's 3rd birthday party. He was very cranky the morning of the surgery but did pretty good. He was put in his hospital gown and was allowed to take him to the OR and then I began to cry so I left. The procedure took about an hour and he woke up screaming. He did really good though.
When the biopsies came back, she diagnosed him with Eosiniphillic Esophagitis, EE for short.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

The beginning

February 27, 2009 was the day our lives changed forever, again. Zachary Carson was born by c-section at 7:40 am. He was 7 lbs and 6 oz and 19 1/4 inches long, he came out fighting and kicking. I went to recovery and anxiously awaited baby Zach to join me, but he seemed to have some trouble. Dr. Young came in a little while later to let me know what was going on, he was so excited his heart was beating really fast and they were afraid he had a hole in his heart so they were keeping him in the nursery til he calmed down. I remember going through recovery and then to my room and what seemed like an eternity before I got to see my baby. It was only about 4 hours but seemed a lot longer. He calmed down and was fine, no heart problems..just a big scare!
We went home 2 days later, and the next morning a huge snow storm came into town and baby Zach got to see his first snow (from inside the house, of course). His brother Luke, 22 months at the time, enjoyed the snow and was enjoying his brother as well. Baby Zach was doing really well, he grew and developed like all normal babies. I nursed him for about 6 months, which was nice but tiring. He would nurse and wake up screaming 2 hours later all night. Dr. Young figured he couldn't tolerate lactose so I stoped breastfeeding and we tried formula, first lactose free then soy then hypoallergenic and finally found one he could tolerate. At around 11 months we switched him to cow milk with no problems, so we thought.