Just One More Doctor

Today we went to see Eliza's new GI. Her old GI, who I liked, has moved and is now at Yale and an almost 3 hour drive to see him just seems to be a bit much, especially when we live in NYC, land of doctors. But I suppose seeing someone new may not be such an awful thing. I am just not a fan of change particularly when it is a change I haven't asked for or sought out.

At this practice you see a resident first to give some basic updated info and then you see the doctor. The new resident seemed pleasant enough but was a little put off when Eliza decided to pee on the floor. I'm thinking that if a toddler peeing on the floor is alarming, then pediatric GI may not be the specialty for you given how many bodily fluids are involved in that practice.

So as I suspected the new GI asked me no less than half dozen times if I wanted her to put in a G-tube or an NG tube. I explained, no less than a half dozen times that I was not morally opposed to a G-tube if Eliza was being medically or developmentally compromised but that absent that I was not thrilled with the notion. Given the severity of Eliza's sensory issues, in that I can barely wash her face, let alone tape something to her face, the GI conceded that a trial with an NG tube would be useless unless the tube was inserted and removed after each feed. As a single parent with no one to hold Eliza down for the insertion of an NG tube, I just don't see how that would work unless I hired a nurse or Hulk Hogan to come here several times a day to hold Eliza down for the insertion and the subsequent feed. Eliza, I am sure, would be more than helpful in the removal of the tube.

So we have decided to start from scratch to see if we can find a medical reason for Eliza's refusal to eat any kind of solid food and her limited volume intake of formula. I am sure I looked at the doctor like she was nuts when she asked me "are there any foods Eliza consistently pushes away?" Hmmmmm ... other than some yogurt, ice cream and goldfish (tails only) she pushes all food away.

Eliza's prevacid is being increased from 15mg every other day to 30mg a day. Eliza is scheduled to see the allergist to get tested to see if there is something that was missed on that front. If the prevacid doesn't help and if the allergy tests come back negative then we'll look into Delayed Gastric Emptying again and try some out patient sessions at St. Joe's. Eliza will also get another swallow study since she has been choking a bit on anything more "solid" than yogurt or ice cream.

For those of you who have been following our little blog here, you are not crazy nor are you having deja vue. We did all of this 18 months ago. But since Eliza is eating less than she was 18 months ago the thought is that maybe something has happened or developed in the past 18 months that has caused her food refusal to worsen.

And for anyone who has been following Eliza's "stats" she is 23 lbs 8 ozs which is a whopping 4 ounces more than she was in June of this year and she is 33.5 inches long, so virtually no change since June.

I did get a good chuckle a few days ago when someone was telling me how "huge" Eliza was. After me explaining life under the 3d percentile, the person looked at me and said with astonishment "oh, I thought she was one and a half, not two and a half." Great!

Halloween was a bit of a non-holiday once again. Last year Eliza was in the ER with dehydration the day before Halloween and this year trick-or-treating was curtailed by some surgery (me not Eliza). But we dressed up the little miss and got the camera out and once again thanks to Peter, our very favorite photographer, we got some great photos of Eliza. I know she looks like a Medieval barmaid (or the St, Paulie girl according to my friend Ann Marie!), but she is supposed to be Mary Had a Little Lamb. She refused to wear the hat or carry the staff and the lamb was mostly thrown across the lawn. But a fun time was had by all.

This is supposed to be a fun holiday?



Ack! Where did this lamb come from? If you remotely know me then you know I HATE stuffed animals:



Toddler Lamb Toss:



Let me just kill this thing with the utility company flag spike:



Maybe if I just kiss the damn lamb they'll get me out of this "bar wench" costume: