new blog address/ update on Landon

So, I changed my blog address because I recently found out that a couple people who I no longer associate with have been reading it and it just makes me feel like they are spying on me to somehow use the information against me. Yes it sounds a little paranoid but those of you who know the people I'm talking about will understand why I did it. There are two people out there that I'd rather not let into my life again.
This new address is easier to remember anyway :)
In other news, we took Landon to the GI specialist and finally have some real answers to his problems. I think everyone knows that he has reflux and tracio malatia.(spelling ?) It is normal for a lot of babies to have reflux and it's usually not something to worry about. It normally just makes babies spit up after they eat and that's all. Poor Landon has a pretty severe case of GERD (Gastroesophaheal Reflux Disease). Some of the symptoms that Landon has that the Doc's are worried about are
- poor weight gain
- inconsolable or severe crying and irritability
- persistent food refusal ( poor growth or failure to thrive and difficulty eating)
- Breathing problems (difficulty breathing, breathing stops, tuning blue, chronic cough, wheezing.
There are more symptoms associated with GERD but these are the ones Landon has.
He has improved a lot with some of the at home treatments they've suggested such as the hypoallergenic formula and keeping him at a 30 degree angle at all times. But the medicine's weren't working and he stops breathing all the time. The last time he was in the hospital it was because he turned blue. Just last night he stopped breathing for like 5 minutes. It's pretty scary. So, anyway the GI wants us to try a new medicine and putting some rice cereal in his formula for a week and if it doesn't help him significantly then he will need to be fed through a tube. If that happens they will start with a NJ tube which basically drips food into his intestine 24 hours a day. This way there will never be food in his stomach to reflux. After a couple months of that they will try a NG tube that will drip food into his stomach. If he tolerates it they will continue that for a while and later they will slowly start feeding him small portions every couple hours instead of 24/7. They will gradually increase the amount of food and lengthen the space in between feedings. They hope that by nine months old he will have grown out of the reflux but if he doesn't and it continues to affect his growth they will do surgery. We are hoping that none of this actually has to happen, but we will know more by the end of next week. Unfortunately, the doc didn't seem very convinced that the new meds and rice cereal were going to work. He just wants to make sure he tries all of the non evasive options first. He told us that in cases like this they always try all of the meds first, then in none of the meds work they do tube feeding and if that doesn't work then they have to do the surgery (which nobody wants).
It was just really nice to have someone sit down and really go over everything with us. He drew pictures and everything. The people at the hospital basically had sent me home with instructions to starve my baby. They had me feeding him 2 oz every 2 hours. He pretty much said he was only getting 3/4 of the calories he needs to grow sufficiently. Here's something that's pretty funny though. Everybody is shocked at how skinny he is when they see him in just his diaper but when the diaper comes off everybody is shocked at how "well endowed" he is. So far every doctor had said something about it. I just think it's funny.
So for now we are just trying to get him to gain weight and watching to make sure he's breathing. It's so scary when he stops breathing because there's really nothing I can do. We just have to wait to see if he catches his breath on his own and if he starts turning blue we're supposed to call 911.
I hope we get this all figured out soon. I feel so bad for my little man. I can tell he's trying so hard to be happy. He actually smiled at me the other day. I think on the 15 actually. That's kinda funny.
Speaking of my little man, he's screaming pretty hard right now, the tortured cat is back (that's what it sounds like to me when he gets really worked up, it sounds like a cat is being tortured or dying).
Hopefully he's not being fed through a tube next weekend, keep your fingers crossed!!