Eggs & Toast, Hospital Style
Harrison had a Gastric Emptying Scan today. That's a fancy way of saying they checked to see how quickly his tummy is digesting food. We left the house at 6:15am and got home at 3pm. 2 hours of driving and 6 hours of sitting in a waiting room with an energetic little boy? Sign me up! Good times!
Actually, he did GREAT. And after 5 years I finally came to an astounding realization...technology is not always the enemy. I'm pretty conservative with my kids and the amount of screen time they get. I am the mom who packs a backpack full of activity books and legos and makes them participate in conversation because I don't want them to turn into phone zombies or video game zombies or...you catch my drift. And for the past 5 years, doctor appointments have been an absolute nightmare. So I finally gave in. Harrison literally played video games and watched netflix for hours up until our fully charged Kindle died. And I didn't have to get on to him one single time. In 6 hours of waiting in a waiting room. It was amazing! From now on I'm embracing The Zombie and it will no longer be one of those battles I choose. It's just not worth it. We can reevaluate it in the future when he's had more time to mature and every appointment doesn't end in a fight.
The reason we were there for so long is because he had to eat food laced with some sort of a high-tech radioactive GPS tracking substance in it that could be detected on an x-ray. That is the completely accurate medical term for it, in case you were wondering. They gave him 2 scrambled eggs with 2 pieces of toast and he INHALED it. And kept saying yum! this is so awesome! I'm not really sure what this says about my home cooking but I'm fairly certain I should be offended. Or at the very least, ashamed. Anyway, I'm glad he loved it so much because it meant we didn't have to have any food battles getting it down him. As soon as he ate, they took an initial x-ray, and then 1 more x-ray every hour for 4 hours to see how much food was being digested.
His doctor called me this afternoon with the results. Ding, ding ding! We have a slow tummy. Considering he vomits up food 7 hours after eating it, I kind of already figured, but now it has been medically confirmed. By the last x-ray at 1:30pm, he said normal results should show less than 10% of food remaining in the stomach, and Harrison still had 50%. Now we need to figure out what's causing the slow digestion and if that's what's also causing the reflux. Gastroparesis and Rumination Disorder were two terms thrown out there but we still don't have a diagnosis at this point. He put him on a new medication and hopefully that will help.
Thankfully Rick had some flexibility and was able to stay home with Harper & Elby. I was originally planning on taking the baby with me so Rick could work while Harper was at preschool, but the little guy has an awful case of croup and that would have been a miserable experience for everyone. (Yes, apparently God thinks that even our foster children should be sick. Welcome to our germy family...you'll fit right in! LOL.)
Actually, he did GREAT. And after 5 years I finally came to an astounding realization...technology is not always the enemy. I'm pretty conservative with my kids and the amount of screen time they get. I am the mom who packs a backpack full of activity books and legos and makes them participate in conversation because I don't want them to turn into phone zombies or video game zombies or...you catch my drift. And for the past 5 years, doctor appointments have been an absolute nightmare. So I finally gave in. Harrison literally played video games and watched netflix for hours up until our fully charged Kindle died. And I didn't have to get on to him one single time. In 6 hours of waiting in a waiting room. It was amazing! From now on I'm embracing The Zombie and it will no longer be one of those battles I choose. It's just not worth it. We can reevaluate it in the future when he's had more time to mature and every appointment doesn't end in a fight.
The reason we were there for so long is because he had to eat food laced with some sort of a high-tech radioactive GPS tracking substance in it that could be detected on an x-ray. That is the completely accurate medical term for it, in case you were wondering. They gave him 2 scrambled eggs with 2 pieces of toast and he INHALED it. And kept saying yum! this is so awesome! I'm not really sure what this says about my home cooking but I'm fairly certain I should be offended. Or at the very least, ashamed. Anyway, I'm glad he loved it so much because it meant we didn't have to have any food battles getting it down him. As soon as he ate, they took an initial x-ray, and then 1 more x-ray every hour for 4 hours to see how much food was being digested.
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| Him: YUMMY! Me: Barf. |
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| entering the "Star Wars ship" |
His doctor called me this afternoon with the results. Ding, ding ding! We have a slow tummy. Considering he vomits up food 7 hours after eating it, I kind of already figured, but now it has been medically confirmed. By the last x-ray at 1:30pm, he said normal results should show less than 10% of food remaining in the stomach, and Harrison still had 50%. Now we need to figure out what's causing the slow digestion and if that's what's also causing the reflux. Gastroparesis and Rumination Disorder were two terms thrown out there but we still don't have a diagnosis at this point. He put him on a new medication and hopefully that will help.
Thankfully Rick had some flexibility and was able to stay home with Harper & Elby. I was originally planning on taking the baby with me so Rick could work while Harper was at preschool, but the little guy has an awful case of croup and that would have been a miserable experience for everyone. (Yes, apparently God thinks that even our foster children should be sick. Welcome to our germy family...you'll fit right in! LOL.)
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