She puked in the tub multiple times in my attempt to get her cleaned up and I knew then that this was worse than usual. We went to Brynna's 5th grade Awards Day and Talent Show where she continued to gag and puke. I felt so awful for the family sitting in front of us. I'm sure they thought I had brought a sick baby to the program! During the talent show part, Juan was getting fussier and Alex thought she would feel better if she took a bottle even though I warned him it would come right back up. Unfortunately, I was right. 😟 It's not unusual for her to have puking episodes but this was the worst we had encountered and she was acting like it really bothered her, whereas normally, she pukes and goes right back to eating.
Besides letting my baby get a granola bar stuck in her throat, I also had another mommy fail that day. I thought the program started at 12:45pm like Braylee's had the week before but it had actually started at 12:15! Thankfully we were early so we didn't miss too much, but I felt horrible about it and missed Brynna getting her reading award! We saw the rest of the awards program though and then the 5th graders put on a Talent Show.
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| Monday, May 21st ~ Beilyn was thrilled to give her a bottle! |
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| The little girls were sharing! But then Bria shared her granola bar too... 😆 |
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| Finally resting a little after puking most of the morning. She wasn't able to get any food in that day. |
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| 5th Grade graduation |
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| I like how they combined their talents! Brynna & Faith danced while Alaina played the piano and Grady sang. |
Tuesday morning, we called radiology and they were able to move her esophagram up a day. Being a momma of many makes it hard on days like this. Beilyn had her IEP evaluation for Kindergarten that morning too! I was able to listen in on the conference while driving to the hospital, but I would have rather been there. (We learned that she no longer needs Occupational Therapy. Yay!) When we arrived at the hospital, they decided to try again to get her lab work done. They eventually moved us to the peds floor to do it via doppler guidance and ended up having to do an arterial draw. Poor baby. I knew she was a hard stick but that was a first for us.
Her esophagram was quick and easy. They immediately saw a filling defect above her esophageal stricture, which meant something was lodged there preventing the barium to "fill" the esophagus completely. My guess is a chunk of almond from the granola bar. It also showed what we would expect to find from her birth defect- her esophagus looks like a skinny hour glass, narrowing tightly in the middle where the reconstruction was done.
The rest of the day was awful. She was starving but anything she tried to drink came right back up. Her breathing was labored and harsh which worried me that she was aspirating. I was hesitant to keep giving her liquids but attempted her bottle several times. Most of the day was spent snuggling and waiting on a plan from the surgeon's office. We also tried some tricks like giving her butter to try to help the almond pass. Finally at bedtime, she was able to tolerate a bottle if I held her in just the right position!
Wednesday morning was Beilyn's LAST day of preschool! And we were supposed to take BellaMei to the surgeon in Indy with possible surgery that afternoon. We are so thankful for Gramma & Pappy! Having them next door is especially helpful on days like this. They even canceled their plans to go to St. Louis to take care of our babies. ♥ So Pappy took Beilyn to preschool and Gramma watched Bria while we took BellaMei to Riley. Her appointment went well! He was convinced the object was no longer lodged since she tolerated her bottle the night before so we tried another bottle in his office and she did great with it. He showed us her x-ray and said the repair done in China looks good, but she will need a few esophageal dilations done to widen the stricture. In the meantime, she's on purees only. After losing 2 pounds in the last few days, she was a happy girl eating soup at Panera after her appointment! She even practiced her walking that afternoon!
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