Blessed By D: Testing Both Ends

Poor baby Dominic had a procedure yesterday under anesthesia where they looked at his GI tract from both ends :(. A couple of weeks ago we went to see the GI specialist (remember the one from Africa.. love him!) and he was concered about his anal spincter and his constant diarrhea (dumping). So we went in for a flexed sigmoidscopy and a pelvic exam but before he was taken back they tacked another procedure onto the "to do" list, a EGD (or Esophagogastroduodenoscopy for all you nerds out there). This is where they insert a small camera through his throat down his esophagus, through his stomach, and into the beginning part of his small instestines, called the duodenem. They were looking to make sure his sphincers that are between his esophagus and stomch and between his stomach and intestines were working fine. They both looked good but he did see some irritation of the lining. He took a biopsy to check the enzyme levels, to make sure he has enough enzyme to digest his food proerly (another potential source of his dumping).

From the other end, they did a colonoscopy (ok all you 40+ year old men, man up..., if he can do it, you can too!) They were look at his colon (obviously) and his rectal sphincter. They also did another test where they put little elecrodes on his muscle of his sphincter to locate the muscle of it. His tissue in his colon was inflamed, a sign of allergies, so they took another biopsy. The GI doctor felt pretty certain that his anal spincter is not in the right place, which is causing it not to close as tightly as it should. He wanted a second opinion from the general surgeon though so we are scheduled to see the surgeon next Wednesday.

Poor little man was so wiped out from all the aneshesia he slept all day and all night! He woke up this morning about 6 am and was wide awake and happy til 12:30 this afternoon... just in time for his therapists to come. We had all 3 therapies today because the procdure yesterday messed up our therpay schedule. So, first was speech, and like a typical speech therpist, ours is so soft spoken, bubbly, optimistic, and sweet. I swear, I think you have to take a sweetheart test to get into Speech Therapy school- I've never met a mean one! Then we had PT with a therpist who has been practicing longer than I have been alive, She is so good, I really like her. And to top things of, she used to teach Neuro at the PT school I went to.. before my time. Yeah, that's right, I have an ex-PT school Neuro professor doing my kids therapy--- booya! And lastly today we had OT with another very good, experienced therapist.

I was so relieved when I met my therapists. As a therapist myself, I am a bit snobby about who treats Dominic. I don't want to know more than the person treating my baby but I was just sure I would get some new grad... so I was thinking of how I woud let her go... "it's not you, it's me.. really.." Sorry, you're not getting your feet wet with my kid! So you can imagine how relieved I was when I saw my PT and OT. I know they know way more than I do about therapy.. just how I like it :). My speech therapist is younger, but she has been doing infantf feeding for about 10 years and is certified in infant vital stim... good enough for me!

So, here are a few shots of sweet man during his therapies... which he slept through today :/ and a couple of yesterday's procedure.