Great and not so great...

We had our appointment with GI today. First, the not-so-great news. They have absolutely no idea why this is happening to Andrew. They said that reflux doesn't make sense. I can't remember all the reasons why not, but they don't think that's the primary reason. They can't see any signs of neuromuscular problems as he has developed normally and shows no delay whatsoever. That is very frustrating for us, as we were hoping they would at least have some insight. Dr. San Pablo said that this is extremely rare, for a healthy 14 month old boy to develop these symptoms without any other signs of delay or poor growth. He said it is not unheard of, but for the likely causes, he would have thought that Andrew would have been sicker, sooner.

But, now for the good news. These guys aren't messing around. We have an upper GI scheduled for this Friday. This is a test where Andrew will swallow some barium, and they will take a series of x-rays to determine where the food is going. They will follow it from his mouth, to the first portion of the small intestine. It should take about 30 minutes and will not hurt Andrew at all. He will not need to be sedated. Then, Monday morning, they are scheduling an endoscopy (scope) with a biopsy. This will require some light sedation as they pass a scope through Andrew's esophagus and also take small biopsies to rule out malignancies. Before they wake Andrew up, they will place a pH probe (small probe through his nose) that will monitor acid in stomach and esophagus for 24 hours. This will be inpatient (they may transfer us to South for the 24 hour period), but Andrew will be able to eat and drink like normal. This will tell us if Andrew has reflux. As of now, the g-tube is still scheduled for the 19th. The doc would like to have the biopsy results back before the tube is placed, so there is a potential that will get pushed back, but so far it looks like that is still recommended.

If they cannot find anything on the scans and scopes and probes...they will CT his head to further rule out any neurologic malignancies. I hope that we will have an answer before it comes to that, but if not, we are willing to do whatever it takes to figure this out.

We still need prayer. That the answer will be revealed, that Andrew's body will be healed, that this will not place any undo stress on our family and affect Allison or our ability to parent effectively. We are very calm about this. We feel like we are in the right hands now and take comfort in knowing that God is going before us to guide us.

We will keep you updated!