We had our first GI apt. today. It went pretty well. The doc was very nice. I was warned that they have very long waiting times so we were lucky that the whole process took just over an hour.

She said that the head stuff he was doing sounded like Sandifer’s and that the choking a coughing indicated that the reflux was not really controlled. She said his dose of Prevacid (15 mg) was high so she did not increase it, and she wants to do a PH Probe.
I am really nervous about the test. I want to have answers and make sure that he is ok, but I can’t help but feel like maybe I am overreacting. I don’t want to put him through something so unpleasant if it is not absolutely necessary.

He is a really happy baby and hardly every cries anymore. He does not act like he is in pain very often, but he seems to have a very high tolerance for pain. He has just started crawling and he is constantly banging his head and he just shakes it off and keeps going. I would hate for him to suffer permanent damage because I did not take it seriously enough.

Ok, I’m totally rambling here. I am just worried about all of this and having a hard time getting all my thoughts straight. I will search through the old post on ph probes and maybe that will help put me a bit more at ease.

Katey,

I'm glad you didn't have to wait 2 hours like we did. A little over an hour isn't bad at all for Dr. J. - we always waited longer than that!

She convinced us to do the PH probe too, and I don't know why we did it looking back. Allie refused to eat with that thing in her nose and taped to her face, so it made things hard on us. We also had to take her off the prevacid three days in advance so that made her feel like crap ahead of time. The results said she refluxed a lot (248 times) but that the ph wasn't very high so Dr. J. didn't do anything - no increase in meds, nothing.

IMHO, if your son is doing well, I would wait and see how he continues to do on the prevacid.

Let us know what you decide. They put it in at Hurley and let us go home with it, so at least that's good - a lot of moms on here have to have their kids overnight in the hospital for it.

Good luck,
Christyn

Thanks Christyn, I am glad you gave me the heads up. I brought lots of toys and an exta bottle just in case we where there for a while.

We are still really torn on what we should do at this point. I guess I will do some research and think it over.

PS I love the pic of Allie and the bottom how cute!!

Hi Katey,
I replied to your post elsewhere, but I just thought I'd tell you to check out Minnie's post a few down. She put in some pics of Eric when he had his done. Good luck in your decision.

Thanks lori, I found that one searching. The pics look so sad. They just called and set it up for monday. I did not think they would do it that soon.

That seems to be their protocol Katey. First, we did a PH probe. No increase in meds, nothing. Allie still had a ton of pain and refused to eat, so they schedule a scope. Why didn't they just go right to the scope I wondered? I didn't want to do that either but we had to rule out ulcers.

I'm betting that if they do a ph probe and your little guy still has problems, a scope is in your future. We didn't change anything after Allie's scope either b/c that was clear. Looking back, I wouldn't have done either one if I had known, nothing changed, no increase in meds, nothing. After the scope and PH probe, we switched docs b/c she just did not know what to tell us to try. If your little guy is already on a big dose of prevacid and she's not willing to increase it, I don't know what a ph probe is going to tell her that she already doesn't know?

Did he already have an upper GI? I can't remember.

C

No he has not had an upper GI. I thought that was what she would do first. I was a little surprised by the probe. She said that we would determine if he needed to see surgeon based on the results of the probe.

I had the pH probe done myself. I also do not have any pain, so I can relate to your son not crying. I, instead, have the asthma, sinus, coughing stuff going on. I agree read Minnie's post called "Shae's Grammy" b/c I learned more from reading that than from the dr. I wish I had read that BEFORE my pH probe.

Best wishes with whatever you decide to do. Sometimes, I think the doctors are smarter than us and should know what they are doing, yet I also feel we should read a lot and have enough info so we can ask intelligent questions.

Let us know what you decide and how you make out.

BTW, welcome to the site. Love your picture, Sebastian is a cutie!

Katey, your GI's reasoning seems a bit wierd. I'd be leary if my doctor was suggesting surgery (i.e. fundo) based on the results of a pH probe, without doing a scope first. Especially on a child who doesn't seem like they are in pain. I don't know what's up with these docs. Why can't they just up the meds instead of suggesting everything else under the sun first. Good luck Monday. We'll be thinking of you.

She said we would decide if we should consult the surgeon based on the results, and that he would most likely want to do more tests. I guess she dose not do surgery. From what I have heard from Christyn’s experience with this doc I don’t think she does much.

We decided to go ahead with the test. At least then we will have a clear picture of what is going on. I am sure it will just confirm what we already suspect but, there is a chance that it may not be reflux at all and then we would have to find out what else could be causing all the coughing and choking and rattly breathing. Everything has been trial and error and speculation up until this point so it will be nice to at least have some definitive results to base our decisions on.

I know he is going to hate having it put in. He was always really congested after he was born so I had to use saline and suction out his nose a lot. He now freaks when you come anywhere near his nose. I have to pin him down screaming just to get a booger out. Otherwise my only real worry is not being able to give him any meds for a few days. He has been on some from of medicine since he was 1 months old so it will be really hard if he is in pain and I can not give him anything for it.

I just hope we are making the right choice. Being a mom can be so hard sometimes.

I don't know why, but my doctor had me stay on my medicine before the test? I take 40 mg a.m. and p.m. of Protonix. I agree it is hard to be a Mom sometimes, you just have to go with your gut after fully discussing things with your dr.