Hi all,

Elana will be 3 in August and she has been on breathing treatments since birth. She gets albuterol 3 times a day and pulmicort once a day. She's on oral steroids (Orapred) constantly. Her doctor's are concerned about the long lasting damage on her lungs due to her aspirating as well as the steroid use. That is why they are talking about doing a fundo. Elana is sick all the time, has stridors, and on a steady stream on antibiotics.

Anyone else on steroids but did not have surgery?

we took steroids off and on, alot, up until surgery, E was also sick all the time and on antibiotics. But, we had the surgery so hopefully someone else will help you. I will go hunt down one right now :wink:

LOL...And I would be that hunted down one. ;)

Evan is on oral steroids and has aspiration issues. Now that he's 4 yo., he's aspirating less, so I'm glad that he will hopefully and finally be outgrowing that nasty part of GERD. Evan was always sick too. In fact, when we visited the ped. earlier this week, he was completely shocked that Evan had finally had his first relatively healthy winter.

Thanks, Janette :wink:

How did Eli do after the surgery? Any problems? How is he now?

Eli had alot more issues than what your son is experiencing so yes he is much better But, the fundo does cause him not to be able to burp, vomit, he has gas bloat, he retches, gags, and chokes, difficulty swallowing, dificulty eating, and some dumping syndrome he also had correction for his emptying because his stomach didn't empty. Those are givens with this surgery.

OH, and it took a good year for him to recover from the surgery.

Chelsea has all the things Erin described. I agree that they are givens. You are in a sense trading one set of problems for another, so the trade off must be worth it--ie: the 2nd (fundo) set is a better set of problems to deal with because the first set are so awful.

If I were her mom though, I still would not be entirely convinced that this is something that would stop with a fundo; I guess what I am trying to say is that I wouldnt be convinced just yet that reflux alone is causing this problem. This is only my feelng based on what I read regarding your daughter's situation, so take it lightly....I could be way wrong. Just thinking and trying to help. It would just be horrible if you found out the hard way, after a fundo, that something else is causing her wheezing/aspiration problems and you find out when she now has two sets of problems to deal with.

I just thought of something--my kids' ped said that when they aspirate due to reflux, there is a certain area of the lungs it would show up in. You also would be able to find stomach lipids in the liquid if a biopsy was taken. Has any of the docs mentioned anything about this?

good points, Carla!