What we know now....

Thanks to everyone for the kind wishes and thoughts of Carter.
He had his Upper GI study last Tuesday at Bellevue Children's Hospital. We woke up early that day and headed to the hospital. I purposely scheduled his appointment early since he had to fast for 8 hours prior, fearing he would be upset about no breakfast, but he never even asked about it. Children's is a beautiful facility, with a craft room and video game room, volunteers walking around blowing bubbles. Legos to play with and lots to watch to distract kiddos prior to their procedures. We checked in at 7:30am, and shortly after that the tech came to get us. She started by explaining the entire process to Carter. He was a bit shy but I was happy that she was talking to him and making sure he was comfortable. She asked what flavor he wanted to drink (Orange or Cherry) and he picked Cherry. The Dr. came in and introduced herself. She also explained he would drink the barium, they would take some pictures. Then he would drink some more and wait till it worked its way down his digestive system. We started shortly after 8am with several large gulps of contrast. He tolerated this very well and they got some great pictures of the contrast going down his esophagus. Next they tried to make him reflux by making him lift his legs, cough, try to burp, essentially they were trying to capture him refluxing. It didn't work. So he drank some more and we waited. He watched Toy Story 3, we took some more pictures 20 minutes later, watched some more movie, changed the movie to Princess and a Frog, drank some more. Then he started to gag. The tech came in at that time and wanted to get pictures of this gagging. So off we went again. His little body taking up less than half of the table space. He liked to watch the pictures. I think we took 3 rounds of pictures with 20 minute breaks in between. We went to the craft room and Carter made both Jeff and I picture frames. Then back for more pictures. You could actually see the barium, which appears black on the screen, move down his body. They tried to capture the "reflux" by pushing on his stomach with a wooden spoon. Still unable to capture the right image of it. So pictures of what they did get were sent to his Primary Doctor and we waited.

His Doctor called at 6:30 that night to say that result were okay. What they found was that his esophageal sphincter area had expanded about 5mm larger than "normal" and his Duodenum (the part that connects the stomach to the small intestine) was also expanded the same amount. What she can't tell is if he was born this way or if it is just stretching due to the vomiting.

The Plan:
30 days of Prevacid OTC 15mg, to see if the vomiting stops. If he can stop throwing up for 30 days we may do another GI study to see if the area in question shrinks or if he in fact was born this way. If he was born this way he can have a "lap band" procedure that will essentially put a band around the esophagus to hold it tighter, thus keep him from throwing up. Now we wait and see how he responds to the meds.

I must say I am so proud of Carter and his ability to "buck up" and do what we ask of him even if it's uncomfortable. He really is a SUPER Trooper and I am amazed at how he trusts us so completely. I am thankful this didn't turn into something worse and feel so lucky to have generally healthy and happy boys.