At home now

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't update yesterday. We are at home. After a whole week away from home, there was so much to catch up on. Jer was great at keeping up with the housework, but he did have a lot of extra tasks on his plate with Lex being sick, then him.

I guess we should be extra thankful for Paula for watching Lex on Wednesday. She and Chris both ended up sick. Chris was at a scout campout (that he took time off of work for and paid $$$ to attend) and was sick as a dog. I feel so badly! We sure owe them! Plus, they are taking us in on Thanksgiving since we are so disorganized right now we were just going to get takeout for dinner on Thursday!

Here is the update I wrote up on Austin yesterday afternoon for our family websites. It gives a lot of information on Austin's diagnosis and follow ups:

We finally got approval for discharge. I am very happy. I have felt like a prisoner here all week. Our room is tiny with no bathroom and there are no windows except for one that goes out to the nurse's station (which also has no natural light) and lets in flourescent lighting all night long. I told Jer that I really don't think they would have let us leave on our own if I went crazy and couldn't take it anymore. They probably would have called CPS for neglect. So, in effect, we really were being held here against our will. But at least we are free now!

Austin will have three prescriptions. One for his home nebulizer treatments (every six hours), one for Zantac to reduce the acidity of his reflux, and one for Reglan to make food move through his digestive tract faster so it has less chance to reflux and bother him.

The results of the Upper GI study (barium swallow) were that he had reflux. The PH probe found that in the 24 hour study, he had 73 instances of reflux, with 17 of those being 5 minutes or more. The longest duration of acid sitting in his esophogus was 23 minutes. 15 of these reflux instances went all the way up to his throat. This was all without him spitting up once. He has silent GERD just like Lex had.

With the acid going all the way up to his throat, it is very possible that he was aspirating some of the acid, causing his rapid breathing. That is why he will have the nebulizer treatments to break up anything in his lungs and help him get them out.

We are going to need to follow up with the pulmonologist he saw here in 4 weeks, the gastroenterologist in 2 weeks, and his pediatrician tomorrow. Thank heavens for insurance!