Diagnosis

So our little Sophie has been out of hospital for 10 days now. As you can read from previous posts, she went in for a nasty virus and ended up staying 5 days, during which time the docs tried to get to the bottom of her breathing and weight gain issues. The Lord was so good to give us a pediatrician who came on a week long stint the night Sophie was admitted, so we had the same doc the whole time she was in. He was really wonderful. Great doc AND great bed-side manner (with Sophie AND me!).

 During the 5 days, Sophie was examined by this doc., a pulmonologist, a nutritionist, three residents, and 5 med students, EVERY day! Golly. That poor baby cried whenever she saw a stethescope come near her. She also had more tests than I like to remember. IVs, a spinal tap, three chest x-rays, a kidney ultra-sound, two feeding tube insertions, a swallow test and blood oxygen monitoring 24/7.

 The end results show she has several issues that are leading to her failure to thrive: she has bad reflux and this causes large amounts of acid to come up her esophagus. Every now and then, she will aspirate tiny amounts of this into her lungs, causing inflammation. This leads to rapid breathing, which in turn uses up all her extra calories. She is using up too much energy to breathe when she should be using it to grow.

 To combat all this we have many steps to follow. Continue with her reflux meds religiously as well as practice reflux management (raise one end of her mattress, good burping, make her sit upright 30 minutes after eating etc.). She is also on an inhaler to ease her airways. She is on oxygen whenever she sleeps (please pray about this as she consistently pulls out the tubes from her nose; we have to find another solution). And she has an NJ feeding tube in. They tried the NG tube which goes into her stomach but she pulled it right out and this may worsen her reflux, so they put in the NJ tube which goes down into her intestines. We turn this on only at night, so she can eat normally during the day. She is also on a very high calorie formula (usual is about 22 cal per ounce but she is on 30 cal per ounce now).

The goal with all these things is to get her to grow QUICKLY and hopefully grow OUT OF the reflux and lung issues.

So. That's the scoop. She is still our smiley happy baby despite all she has been through lately. We praise the Lord for healing her and for giving us solutions to help her grow. Please pray for her that these issues will be resolved quickly. And please pray for me as I take care of her that I will remain diligent with the many steps we have to go through each day. It keeps me on my toes!