When I learned that Ava would be drinking barium during her swallow study X-ray last week, I should've voiced my concerns: She's two months old and has had stomach surgery...Is it REALLY safe for her to be swallowing something containing solids?
As a result of me allowing her to be put through that USELESS test (the only treatment they recommended was to change her nipple flow speed) after being prescribed some USELESS reflux medication, my poor child now vomits after every feeding -- sometimes multiple times. Her diapers are another story altogether, and in the past twenty-four hours, that's truly frightened me.
So here we are at the pediatrician's office. She's supposed to have her two month shots today, but we WILL reschedule them. She's been through too much already. She's so hungry, but so backed up she can't or won't feed well. When she tries, she ends up painting the walls with it not long thereafter.
My plan today is this: feed her in the exam room, and show them what ensues. Tell them I will not leave until they give her something to relieve the pressure in her swollen tummy. If they won't, I'll take her straight to Children's -- do not pass GO, do not collect your copayment. I feel no shame about being blunt or demanding at this point. This office has already infuriated me once today, when I called from the roadside where I was mopping up Ava's stomach contents for the third time today.
"Hello, I just wanted to let someone know that we might be a few minutes late for my daughter's appointment. She's vomiting constantly, and I keep having to stop nd tend to her. We'll be there as soon as we possibly can."
The party on the other end of the line huffed under her breath. "Well, you know that we can only hold your appointment for fifteen minutes."
My daughter and I are both wearing her breakfast, lunch, and dinner, she's screaming in agony, and YOU'RE going to inform me how I'm not to inconenience YOU?!?
Uh-uh.
"I'm SORRY," I snapped, "as soon as I clear the vomit from my daughter's nose and mouth on the side of the road, we will be right there."
Nn
Twit.
That's about as PG as I can keep it right now.
.....
Later this morning...
After I filled her pediatrician in on her symptoms since the swallow study, he performed a physical exam on her and instructed me to very calmly WITHOUT SPEEDING take her to the ER at Children's. If it hadn't been for his level head and placid demeanor, I probably would've done just the opposite.
We're here at the emergency room now, where she's hooked up to monitors and and IV fluids, looking very much like a wee baby octopus with all of these wiry tentacles floating around the room. I'm awaiting word back from the surgeon who performed her duodenal atresia repair here. I am completely sick about not possessing the foresight to have circumvented the idiotic test that led us down this frightening path in the first place. I pray with all my heart that she will mend with minimal medical interference. Children's is a place where miracles of healing happen every day, but please, God, don't let her be so messed up from all this that it will take a miracle to help her.
I'll try to update this space as I can.... Hearing the phone go off is making me a little more tense as it competes with her temperamental heart monitor. I'm about to punt the blasted thing across the room.
Sorry if it was you who texted.
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