Saturday, December 6, 2008

A plan

Yesterday was a difficult day for Toby. He was- and continues to be- very uncomfortable and cannot relax enough to sleep without some Tylenol. He also began vomiting again this morning after the latest transition from pedialyte back to breastmilk. They have lowered the rate back down and are continuing to try to get some nutrition into him. After flushing out the extra fluids yesterday, he was down half a pound from a week ago; we are losing ground again.

A new day, a new plan.

The virus has probably pretty much cleared out of his system leaving his reflux problems worse than ever. Since it has been an ongoing and unresolved issue for several months now, his doctor presented me with three possible scenarios.

A week ago, he was starting a new drug which is supposed to help manage reflux by moving food out of the stomach quickly. He became ill before we really had a chance to see how it was working. Toby is starting that up again today in conjunction with the two antacids he also takes.

Possible outcome #1:
This solves the problem enough that he is able to be discharged next week and the reflux continues to be managed medicinally.

Possible outcome #2:
This solves the problem enough that he is able to be discharged next week, but the long term results are not good enough. We explore a surgical remedy.

Possible outcome #3:
The drugs are not enough at this point to enable him to get the nutrition and comfort level he needs. We consider a surgical remedy before a discharge.

I'm glad we don't have to be smart enough to figure out what should and /or could happen. As always, we pray a lot for his doctors and wait to see what the Lord-who-is-good has in store.

No comments: