Donovan's Results and Recovery

For those who read my last, unadvertised, blog post and sent your well wishes, thank you! It warms my heart that I have followers who actually keep up with my posts without reminders.

The good news is that Donovan's upper GI tract looks great! In fact, it looks like the acid reflux diagnosis was probably incorrect - it doesn't look like there is any irritation anywhere.

The bad news is that it probably means that all of the issues are related to food sensitivities, most likely from dairy and soy proteins. Which means that Mama needs to give up on dairy and soy. Which will be difficult (dairy is easier, although not easy, soy is tricky because even my prenatal vitamins have soy in them!). That also includes beef. So no steaks for me! Well, I can have bison, so when I want to do something with red meat, bison it will be :-). She also said no pork, which I don't really understand, but I will abide. Of course, I just bought two pork tenderloins - WAY too much food for Mike to eat when I do cook it up. So I guess that one will have to go into our already way too full freezer for use another day. Fish is fine. No bread. No pasta. Grains are fine, but breads and pastas tend to have soy ingredients in them (I suppose if I fihd a soy / dairy free version that should be good, I guess). She recommends rice as a gentle grain to eat.

The great thing is that he is likely to outgrow this in a few months, so really it's only about 4 months of eating this way. So it shouldn't be too bad.

We will have biopsy results in a week, but she wants me to change my diet starting now. It takes about a week to flush out all of the dairy. I have already purchased coconut milk, so I have that. Now to research some dairy-free, family-friendly recipes. Tomorrow night I'll be roasting a chicken. It shouldn't be too bad. It will just be tricky to go out to eat. Oh well.

Donovan is recovering fine, I guess. He's sleepy. It makes me wish I hadn't had that coffee this morning, because I could be napping right now if I thought I could fall asleep (instead I'm blogging and doing laundry, which is very productive at least). His last 'meal' - if you could even call it that - was at 3:30 this morning. So he's hungry. But he's more tired and sore than hungry, I guess.

He was a champ, though. It was terrible timing, because I think he might have slept through the night had I not had to wake him for this procedure. That said, when I 'woke' him at 3:30 to eat he didn't actually wake up (just latched on and nibbled a bit). Then when I changed his diaper at 5:30 he woke briefly, cried as he got put in the car seat, but was asleep by the time he was snapped into the car. But once we had checked in and they went to take his height and weight, that was enough rousing to wake him. That was obnoxious that they did that first, actually, because the next part was to go over his history. Since he was very awake, and very hungry, he cried and rooted that entire time! They would have done the history stuff first and then measured his height and weight. They couldn't even get an accurate read on his vitals, because all of the crying made his pulse, BP and breathing rate go up. But they could have done all of those things gingerly as he slept, and then taken his height and weight just before the procedure, that way he would only be awake for a short while.

Anyway, by the time we got through the history (which I also gave them over the phone yesterday), the paperwork, consents, etc. made our way to the GI area, and they were ready to bring him back, it was 8:30. My poor little guy had to be awake for two hours all hungry and stuff! He dozed off at points during that, but every time he fell asleep in my arms it was time for me to do something (sign something, get out my insurance card, etc.), so I had to put him back down in his car seat and we'd start all over. He was asleep right before things were about to start up, though, which made it a bit easier to take. They wanted me in the room while they put him under (with gas, so no needles!), which would have been hard to take if he went from screaming to asleep in no time. But since he was already asleep, he didn't look any different. Then they sent me to wait in the lobby for some 20 minutes and they were done. The doctor showed me the pictures right away, and by the time she was done reviewing the results Donovan was awake and ready for me.

The poor little guy is all off as a result of everything. He is very drooly, probably because it hurts some to swallow. He also refused to eat right away. He's all groggy. And he's super gassy due to the air they had to put into his stomach. But he's in decent spirits. The soreness should go away in a day or so. And he already got a few big belches and farts out, so hopefully the extra gas will be relieved soon.

And since he hasn't wanted to eat yet, and I haven't pumped since 4 a.m., I need to pump again. This is good, it will build my back-to-work stash. But once I'm done with that, I think I'll be able to fall asleep. So maybe a little nap for Mommy as well :-)