New GI Dr and Update

Well this update is not the kind of update I prefer to give but have been holding off long enough.

For a couple weeks now Bug has been really struggling now with her tummy. I think I got to excited with her "ability" to try new foods and let just keep going with the new foods. This backfired badly. All the progress we made has completely stopped as we are now having to back off nearly everything for a bit.

Nearly three weeks ago I realized that Bug was starting to have issues and slowed down on the foods but did not create the time for a clean out.

Why? Simple. we have just moved here, had not celebrated our Christmas with the kids yet nor seen her father off to Korea. I was hoping I could delay and she'd be okay.

I waited until she let me know that her tummy was hurting her after eating her normal foods and she was distended. Looking back now, waiting was the wrong choice but I wanted to enjoy the little bit of time left with her father before he deployed.

Last week on Friday, we started the clean out using magnesium citrate. This method normally produces results very quickly. The first bottle went in and nothing happened so I started a second bottle. Again, nothing. The third bottle was started and we just waited. Finally, about 3 am things started moving through but not enough. Around noon the following day I started a fourth bottle.

Normally this child is running pretty clean by this point but still was no where near cleaned out. We had gone through four 12oz bottles of magnesium citrate, seven or eight liters of Pedialyte, and she to top things off near the end of the second day she had not asked about food yet. I ran only Pedialyte for a couple more days hoping that her body would just dump the rest from her body.

Finally, near the end of day four she started asking about applesauce, and apple juice. At this point I let her have applesauce. Since the clean out we started with half strength pedialyte/formula then full strength formula at a slower rate. then we worked back up to her normal rate of 125. She has also only had applesauce and pears.

Going into the new GI, he wanted her kept on just apples, pears, and go ahead and try chicken, but nothing else yet. Bug is really frustrated right now because she doesn't like being so limited, but then she doesn't like her tummy hurting all the time either. We are adding more formula powder to the mix to increase the calorie count and may have to include polycose again. She's dropped down to 63lbs again, down from 70lbs at the beginning of Nov.

We're in the process of getting into the Oakland Children's Hospital where the dr's there are more specialized and knowledgeable with complex kids like Bug. We do not know if some of the meds she's on are causing her gastroparesis to be worse, or if her gastroparesis is just bad enough and causing everything to be really bad again.