So it's no secret that Brielle has had health issues ever since she was 6 months old. It has been a really rough 2 years full of dr appts, tests, different specialists, and no answers. We started seeing our first specialist again, after having seen 2 other ones since him, and finally have started getting somewhere. He put her back on Prevacid thinking it was still reflux related. We have always felt that her issues were not food related, even though that's where all the drs start. We saw MAJOR improvements with her after she was back on the Prevacid. After a couple of months on that the dr had us take her off to see where her symptoms were at. Immediately she went downhill and struggled big time. We had to decided whether or not to have him scope her. Otherwise she would just go back on the meds and we would see how she was every 3-4 months. We felt very strongly to get her scoped. Britney still has struggled as well and we thought it could help bring us answers on her too. So we set up the appt and took her in. She did really well until we had to walk to the "line" and hand her off to the anesthesiologist. She didn't like that so much. My mom came and was able to take care of Britney in the waiting room so Josh and I could both be there with her. The procedure was actually quite quick. Immediately afterwards we were able to see her and talk to the dr. He found that her sphincter muscle isn't contracting which is what is causing major problems. It causes a hiatal hernia to develop which has been the cause of her stomach cramps. So the poor girl has pretty much had the worst heartburn ever her whole life. Unfortunately, this isn't something that will ever develop. Infants grow out of it when that muscle develops around 6-8 months, but hers just never developed. So she will have chronic heartburn for the rest of her life. The dr took some biopsies, which looked better than he expected. So we are going to hold for for a while on doing the x ray that she'll need to have next. Surgery is an option if it becomes unmanageable. But for now we will keep her on her meds and try to pin down which foods aggravate her symptoms...like soda pop. Try telling a 2 yr old she can't have pop when everyone else is. Not easy! We are just SO grateful to finally have an answer. I mentally have struggled with it for 2 yrs, wondering if I'm crazy, if I'm making it up, or if it's just bad habits. Because there wasn't ever a concrete pattern or set of symptoms, it has been hard to get drs to believe me and know what to do. You never want to find something wrong with your kid, but in this case we are feel so blessed to have finally discovered what is bothering her and that it wasn't something worse. So for now we can manage her pain with her meds and wait for her to be a little bit older to continue doing tests and procedures. We love you Brielle!
