Alex visits the hospital

Yesterday was Alex's scheduled appointment at the hospital for his upper GI scope. He has been getting pains in the middle of his chest when he eats. The first few times I wrote it off as him not chewing his food properly, or eating too fast. But after it kept happening, it really worried Carl and I. So, we took him to our pediatrician Dr. Ilyasov, who sent him on to Dr. Ayas, a pediatric gastroenterologist. Dr. Ayas then decided that a scope was in order to find the exact cause and that led us to yesterday. Whew!

Of course this was not a good idea as far as Alex was concerned! We did get him to warm up to the idea, but pulling into the parking structure at the hospital his anxieties started back up. He was a brave as he could be though, and took his polar bear "Smoothie" along with him for support. The staff at Oakwood Main was just fabulous though, and they did all that was in their power to keep him happy and comfortable. They seriously gave Children's Hospital a run for their money, and that is saying something! They postponed the IV till he was asleep and when Alex didn't want to drink the calming meds they brought for him, the Anesthesiologist ran back and got "medicine" shots for all of us, including himself! Of course ours tasted much better than Alex's, poor guy! By the time they came to take him back, he was calm and prepared. But, it seems that he didn't like the mask they were going to use to put him to sleep, so the same anesthesiologist said "Hey, you wanna see a magic trick?" and proceeded to wrap him up in a blanket so he couldn't move and put the mask on him. Dirty little trick, but it worked and Alex has no recollection of it happening! That man is going to be a great dad someday! ha ha

Eosinophilic Esophagitis was the result of the scope which seems to be a long way of saying that his throat is inflamed due to either food allergies of acid reflux. Sooooo, we are going to treat him for the reflux for a month, and see if that helps. He said the chance of food allergies is only about 30% and allergy testing is not fun, whatsoever! Carl knows this from experience and I certainly don't want to put him through it if he doesn't have to! So, hopefully this helps. He had a super sore throat afterward, but mostly from the breathing tube they had to put it. he was coughing and gagging for quite a while, but he was right as rain as soon as he got himself a big ol' chocolate milkshake! He even got to keep the pictures they took of his throat, stomach and small intestine, but decided at the last minute not to take them to school to show his friends. I don't blame him!

Before the proceedure

After the proceedure. That popsicle was so blue, that it stained his teeth! If you can see it, his poor face is all red and blotchy because of the tape they had to use to hold down the breathing tube. You can see his bear in bed with him all covered up with his own blanket!