Bailey's PH Probe

March 22, 2007
Bailey's PH Probe

Bailey woke up yesterday at 6:30 am puking up a bunch of nothing. We get to the hospital at 8am as scheduled. We check in and go to her room and wait and wait and wait until 10am! She is so hungry she throws herself on the floor screaming for a bottle. A 2 hour wait for a toddler with nothing to eat for 13 hours is NOT fun! They arrive while she is napping and bandage her hands and start to work on the probe when she wakes. We get it in, she drinks 3 ounces right off, she is starving. Not 5 minutes later and it all comes back up, the tube had tickled her gag causing the vomiting. We get changed, cleaned up and she then drinks another 3 ounces and this time success, it stays down. Then she falls asleep again, she is worn out. She wakes up after Bradley and daddy arrive with a new Dora ball and bathtoy. BUT she cannot play with it because her hands are bandaged. So she gets upset. We make a trip to the playroom for a while and then to grab some lunch. She wants french fries but cannot pick it up so she drinks some of my drink for a little while. She is happy for the moment. After a couple more hours pass, we ask to try removing the left bandage and she does surprisingly well. She touches the tape and tubing but does not attempt to pull or tug on it. About another hour later while playing she accidentally pulled off the other bandage. I could tell she didn't mean to because she tried to put her hand back in the bandage but couldn't figure out how. So I put it away and let her play. She did so well with not messing with any of the tape or tubing. Even while napping later in the day, she left it alone. She never drank much though, only 2-3 ounces at a time and as the time passed, she gradually drank less and less. By the next morning she refused all feedings until 9:30 and she finally broke down and took 2 ounces. They took the probe out at 10:30 and then we were finally free to go home.

During the recording, I only noticed her usual coughing, the 1 vomiting incident, and a little fussing at midnight. She gagged a couple of time but never vomited from it. She refused a bottle all night long so I didn't get any middle of the night crying fits or spitting up. I could not get her to eat any food other than part of a cookie that she gagged on but that was it. She refused all other solids. I was hoping they had a monitor that would show the ph levels at certain times but it never displayed anything like that.

She finally drinks another 3 ounces once we are home. We leave out to run an errand and she pukes it up while I am trying to get her strapped in the carseat. The wind could blow in the wrong direction and she would puke. I'm sick of constantly smelling like puke. I'm sick of Bailey constantly smelling like puke. If either of us changes clothes, she will puke again in less than 30 minutes. I am beyond all this puking, will it ever end?

After all is said and done, I have a sinking in the pit of my stomach feeling that they are going to tell me her vomiting and gagging is all a result of a sensitive gag, and not reflux related. Why is that? Because I figure it is the worst that they can tell me at this point. Murphy's Law, that will be the case. Certainly it cannot be something so easy that some reflux meds will cure her. We will find out next Tuesday, March 27.

Oh and I should add that she vomited another bottle late last night. I gave her a replacement right before bed with Axid in it and it stayed down. She was up at 12 with a crying fit but settled pretty easily. She got more (small dose) Axid with her morning bottle and it has stayed down also.