A Better Day

We had our appointment with Dr G this morning.

The X-Rays didn't reveal an obstruction of any kind, however they did show that her stomach isn't emptying well at all. It showed her stomach completely filled almost to the top, yet she was only on a feed rate of 1 ounce per hour, so in order for it to be so full she had to have been emptying pretty slow.

We spent much of the visit working through the math, trying to figure out exactly at what rate Lu would need to eat and exactly for how many hours a day in order to get in enough. Its impossible with her at a rate of just 30cc's an hour even if we go around the clock. So we are going to spend the next few days working to move her up just 1 cc a day in order to push her as far as we can. After that, we will probably need to water down her formula to a slightly lesser concentration so that her stomach will empty it out faster.

Dr G also decided that we are going to put in a GJ tube so that we can completely bypass her stomach when needed. The GJ tube will look just like the one she has now, only it will have a second port that is connected to a "straw" that will lead to a lower part of her intestine. This plan is a great one so long as her lower intestines are working well. We will just have to cross our fingers in hopes that her intestines function well enough. The GJ tube will be placed in a little less than 3 months, once her current tube site has healed. If we rush the surgery we run the risk of royally messing up her brand new tube site. So for now we are stuck working with whatever her stomach will allow until the GJ can be placed.

As far as Lucy's formula situation goes, its just not a good thing. The only options left out there are ones that she had failed about 2 years ago before, so we will be stuck re trialing them to be certain they are still out. I don't even want to know what our options are after they are out. I will cross that bridge when we come to it. Fortunately we just got a reorder of our formula and we are going to give it a shot again right before its gone. Hopefully, we will have enough to get us past Christmas.

Lucy is alright. Shes doing well. We're still running 30cc's an hour 24 hours a day and this so far seems to be her max. Tomorrow I will move up 1 cc, regardless, and if its not successful we will begin diluting her formula down.

I am exhausted after this morning, so I am sorry if this update makes little sense! I need to go to bed early tonight.

Thanks for checking in on Lucy!!