Andrew's Endoscopy

My poor little man has not been eating regular food very well, so his GI doctor performed an endoscopy to make sure that there wasn't anything structurally wrong with Andrew gastric system. It's been difficult to get Andrew to eat anything since January, other than his special formula and an occasional banana or Cheerio. I was not excited about him going under anesthesia, but the benefits of the procedure far outweighed the negatives.

On the day of the procedure (April 8th), we woke up at 4:45 and got everyone ready to go. My sweet friend, Moanna, came to my home at 5:30 am to wait for Laurel to wake up so we didn't have to take her. Moanna is one of the kindest, sweetest human beings I know - she was a lifesaver for us that day.

The procedure was done in Plano at the Children's Hospital - it is the nicest surgical center. The doctors and nursing staff are wonderful. Unfortunately, Andrew was not happy to see ANY of them. He cried for 20 minutes before the anesthesiologist gave him a little narcotic to settle him down. It was amazing to watch him get so calm in a matter of minutes.

Dr. Russo, Andrew's beloved GI doctor, carried Andrew to the room where he did the procedure. Dr. Russo is the best - It is very clear that he loves children as you watch him interact with his little patients. He's been so good to Andrew since he was a newborn. In fact, he gave us his home phone last year in case we ever needed to call him after hours. I've never had a doctor do that and I'm happy to report that I've never had to use the number.

The endoscopy only took 20 minutes or so. We were happy to hear that nothing abnormal was found. He biopsied 5 parts of his esophagus and stomach. We just found out that everything looked good, but there was sign of some minor irritation in his stomach. I'm happy to hear that physiologically, he looks great. Now the next step is food and speech therapy. I hope that we can make some progress - I never realized how stressful it is to have a child with eating issues. Laurel was never this difficult. I'm happy to report this week that he's added a few new foods to his diet - canned peaches and Vienna sausages. He seems to love mushy things, but doesn't like crackers or anything dry or starchy. As for the Vienna sausages, I must admit that I swore I would never feed my children canned hot dogs, but when you're desperate you do whatever it takes!

The picture above is of Andrew and his dad in the recovery room. Andrew had a difficult time coming out of the anesthesia - isn't his face so sweet as he's trying to wake up? The nurses gave him the stuffed animal (Ming Ming from "Wonder Pets) for being a good boy.