Yesterday was Sweet Pea’s GI appointment.

While there was no breakthrough discovery that is going to magically make Sweet Pea’s pain disappear overnight (I know…that wasn’t likely to happen, but one can always hope and hope I did), the appointment was very reassuring.

Dr. G wrote in the summary he sent me home with that he suspects the discomfort is more related to the maturation of the nervous system than to a digestive issue or a structural defect of the gut.

This is reassuring to me because it 1) affirms that we are dealing with an immature nervous/digestive system due to drug exposure in the womb and 2) we’ve just got to keep pressing on because eventually Sweet Pea will outgrow all of these tummy issues as her body heals and grows.

Dr. G did say that he wants her to have the upper GI x-ray and sonogram. Even though he is pretty certain this is from the drug exposure the tests are worth doing to be 100% certain there is nothing physically wrong with her digestive system. He said the radiation she will receive from the x-ray will be no more than what she would receive in getting in an airplane and flying to Chicago, so the tests are worth doing. The office will be calling me to schedule soon.

The other thing that was very reassuring was that he validated my opinion that Sweet Pea should be on the Zantac, even though she is not really dealing with “reflux”. He said Sweet Pea is definietely showing reflux symptoms and he said that Zantac has a safety profile that suggests that it deserves to be used as a precautionary measure from possible acid coming up and causing harm to the esophegus tissue. Dr. G said that weaning from the Zantac can begin when she becomes asymptomatic and that the dose will need to be increased as she gains weight.

My pediatrician was wanting to wean Sweet Pea from the Zantac after just a months use, which I did not feel good about at all. In fact, this is one reason I felt the need to take Sweet Pea to a GI specialist so that I could hopefully have him validate my gut instinct that Sweet Pea needs to be on Zantac until her symptoms go away. This was accomplished today!

I told Dr G about the incident when we ran out of Gripe Water on accident and Sweet Pea was without it for over a day and then when we gave her some once we realized she instantly calmed down. He said that gripe water is usually very calming/soothing for the pain and that we should continue the use of Gripe Water.

No magical cure, but today, finally, I feel I have done all I can do to physically help my baby and now it is time that is our biggest factor.

With time, Sweet Pea will gzet over all this. Dr. G obviously could not say exactly when Sweet Pea will be “all better” but he did say that he suspects to see improvements by around 4ish months, possibly 5.

We just need to keep doing what we are doing to bring her the most comfort possible during her spells. She has not had another horrible day like she had last Monday and Tuesday when she was not on the Gripe Water, so that is encouraging.

Oh how I wish Dr. G could have prescribed her a medicine to just make it all go away, but he did not because that is not what is going to bring relief to my Sweet Pea.

What Sweet Pea needs is time to heal. 

And prayers. Lots of prayers for healing.

Please join me in praying daily that God will put His healing touch on Sweet Pea’s little body and rid her of these awful drugs and make her digestive system whole and new.

- Elaine