August Update

This has probably been the most stressful month of my life. That being said all the stressful events went well and there are some positive changes going on. 1st of all I had the doctor move his endoscopy closer because he was refusing to take his bottle (screaming and crying) and I could tell he was in pain. The endoscopy showed his stomach and esophagus were inflamed and the doctor says this is due to his acid reflux. As much as I don't want him to be in pain, I am so happy something came up so the doctors know I am not crazy and we know how to fix it. Unfortunately his only solution is to give him more medicine. I told him he can't keep the medicine down and we've already tried all different medications and different methods of giving them and we CAN'T KEEP THEM DOWN! Of course his only other option is to give the medication through feeding tubes. That's always the "other" option with the doctors which is why we decided to go to the feeding center in NJ.

Just 2 days after his endoscopy we got into the feeding center early also. Although it is a "Behavioral Eating Program" their philosophy is that behavioral issues usually stem from other issues. So the first plan of attack is to figure out the medical piece of why Brayden doesn't want to eat. We are slowly changing little things one by one. The first is adding different medications in his bottle like Mylanta (which we were already doing) and Miralax to try to get his pooping regular. We also changed the times we give his Prilosec. We were giving it to him right before his bottles in hopes we could stick the bottle in and he wouldn't throw up. They told us that this was really ineffective because the medication blocks acid production and if food gets in during this process it only produces more acid. So basically, they told us he had pretty much been going without any medication for as long as we had been trying to do that method. Looking back, that is when the real difficulty with the bottle began. So now we try to give him his medication 45min-1 hour before his feeding as well as giving him Zantac throughout the day. He throws up the Prilosec sometimes, but he can sometimes hold it down. He has slowly started to take the bottle again with a lot less fighting. Some bottles he still screams and cries but there are some that he takes them with no fussing- THANK GOD! So we are hopeful that he will get better and better!

Last, he had his eye surgery yesterday. The doctor said it went very well. He was extremely cranky when he woke up from the surgery but as soon as they unhooked him from all the equipment and IV and we were able to hold him like he likees to be held he was happy again. His eyes are very bloodshot (as expected) and he is happy and acting fine. Tomorrow he goes to the doctor to make sure they look good and he doesn't have to go back next week to correct them again. This is rare and would be horrible if he had to have another surgery so just hope and pray this is NOT the case! If all is well, we need to continue to keep and eye on him because it wouldn't be odd for him to need another surgery in a year or two because his eyes self corrected a bit and then point out a little. Then they would repeat the surgery and loosen the muscles a little bit. Here are some pics of Brayden before the surgery.

All in all, a very stressful month! Luckily the baby held out and has not made an appearance yet. He is due in less than 3 weeks so we will keep you posted on that.