Donovan's first surgery

A few weeks ago, in a seemingly unprompted event, Donovan had some blood in his spit up. Not a lot. Maybe a pea-sized clot in a 3 tbsp sample of spit. It was a congealed clot (not streaks) and bright red (not brown, so fairly fresh). Immediately I called the pediatrician's after hours line. The nurse told me that since it was an isolated event that I shouldn't worry about it. But if it happened again that I should take Donovan in to see them. Of course, she tried to convince me that it was one of two things: My blood (nope, nipples in tact), or residual Prevacid (nope, hadn't started him on the Prevacid yet, and also, that's pink and turns brown in spit up).

The next night we started him on the Prevacid, and didn't see any more blood. Unfortunately that only lasted for 2 weeks. Then he had a big spit up with a few balls of blood. Again, about pea-sized and bright red. This was in the middle of the day, so I was immediately on the phone with the pediatrician's office and scheduled an appointment with the nurse practitioner.

The NP examined Donovan and did not find any obvious source of bleeding. Also, since it wasn't projectile vomit, it was strange that any part of his esophagus was getting irritated enough to bleed like that. So a referral to a GI doctor was made.

We were able to take him in this past Monday. The doctor was really great and seemed to do a thorough in-office exam. She not only looked in his mouth but also pushed on his belly and looked at his skin. She came to the conclusion that Donovan probably has a food sensitivity. The rash on his body was mistaken for heat rash, but might be an allergic reaction. And the bloody spit up without the projectile action is evidently consistent with food sensitivities. Her guess is that it's dairy.

But we are investigating further anyway, because it's still disconcerting. So she is performing an EGD later this morning. That is basically an endoscopic look at the esophagus. She will take lots of pictures and look for any abnormalities. She will also take a biopsy to test for food sensitivities (and, I'm assuming, other things). The procedure itself should only take a few minutes. But he will be under anesthesia. So all told he'll be on the table for about an hour. Of course, they want us there 90 minutes early for check-in, and then will need to watch him afterward for at least an hour to make sure he can eat and hold down his food.

So 8:00 procedure meant no more milk for my little man after 4 a.m. So I woke him at 3:30 to try to get him to eat some. He did, but not nearly enough to keep me from getting engorged. And since I won't be able to nurse him until after 9 a.m., but will be 'up' at 5 a.m., I am up now pumping. Yes, it's 4:20, I'm finishing up my pump, and have to wake for the day at 5:00 so I can leave the house by 5:45. And, yes, I am going to go back to sleep and try to get in that last little nap.

Anyway, I'm kind of a nervous wreck. Any time the word 'biopsy' is uses in conjunction with your child, well, that gets your attention. And the fact that he needs anesthesia at only not-quite-8-weeks-old is also nerve-wracking. And I need to go by myself, because somebody needs to stay back with Jocelyn and get her off to daycare, and she wont' be up until an hour after I have checked in. And I need to leave before 6 a.m. to get to the hospital in time for check in, so there would bv nowhere to take her even if we did get her up early. And since Mike won't have dropped Jocelyn off until after Donovan is under, and it's a short procedure, and it's down in Dallas, I'm not even sure if it makes sense for him to meet us down there. We might just get him on the phone to discuss results. I don't know. That last one we will play by ear.

In my head I'm sure it will all be fine. But as a mom, well, you can understand that in my heart I'm a mess.