A Minor Procedure

Some of you who are friends with me on Facebook or follow Spray Pal on Instagram may have noticed that I posted a few pictures from a little procedure Ryan had to have yesterday.  I didn't talk too much about it because it wasn't anything crazy, and I didn't want to make a big deal.  Basically, he had a tiny abscess which first appeared around 2 months ago after he first had his constipation troubles.  He had an ultrasound to confirm that it was an abscess, then we saw our peds surgeon, Dr. Lam.  I may have updated about this back then, but he told us to take antibiotics, see if it resolves, and then call him to schedule this procedure to close it up if it comes back.  Well, it did resolve, and then he got constipated again, and then it came back. :(  So he had to go back on antibiotics, wait for it to heal, and then we'd schedule the procedure.  Well, it was back and forth like this for some time before he finally decided to just take care of it without any more antibiotics.  What happened was a little track formed while he was pushing and straining, and the bacteria from the bowels gets trapped in the track and causes it to have a little pocket of hard infected stuff like pus that won't quite heal on its own.  Some get large enough that they make their way to the surface and resolve on their own, but his never did.  So Dr. Lam went in and cauterized the lining of the track so that the walls could close up and heal back together and keep out the bacteria.  It literally took 2 minutes, and they didn't even need to put an IV in him, which I was thrilled about.  They did put him under anesthesia, but just the gas, so he woke up fine and you really couldn't even tell he'd been through anything!  I honestly can't even see the hole where he must have gone in from, he just looks completely healed.

TMI WARNING:  So, speaking of his constipation issues...seriously happy to report that since we have started with 100% blended food diet, he has not missed a day!  This kid is so regular now, he's actually pooping MORE than we ever imagined would be possible!  Our job after this procedure was to just make sure we kept his bum clean and give him a quick back or water rinse after any bowel movements.  They actually gave me this turkey baster tool (mental note: remove from kitchen when finished using) to use to squirt water on his bottom after he poops.  Well, since we've been home, we must have used that thing at least 10 times.  It was getting to the point yesterday where every diaper change had poop in it!  We are so excited that his new diet is really helping out in that department.

Overall, we are completely pleased that we took the plunge and switched over to the blenderized diet.  His sats are still doing relatively well, as I mentioned above, he is well beyond regular now, and his reflux definitely seems to be improving.  He still throws up, so we aren't completely out of the woods, but most of the times he does throw up it seems like it's just due to his gag reflex.  Like tonight I decided to let him try a few tiny bites of some softened cheese, and he didn't quite chew it enough before he let it go down his throat, so he started coughing and gagging and then he threw up and out came the chunk of cheese with the tail end of his last meal.  We can pretty well say that it wasn't reflux related, but rather reflex related.  Hopefully he'll start to get the hang of the whole chew, swallow, don't throw up routine soon so we can get him those calories orally and get him off the gtube, but it's definitely going to be a long road.

Hearing:  We had an appointment this week with Providence Hearing Center so we could purchase Ryan's hearing aids and get started on the 6 month trial.  Basically, she told us that based on his hearing tests, it's pretty unlikely that the hearing aids will work for him.  There's a chance he could pick up some really loud noises with them, but it wouldn't likely be enough to help him hear or speak normally.  I know it seems strange to even bother with them with that being the case, but it's part of the process before you get a CI (Cochlear Implant).  The reasoning is that the CI procedure it permanent, so it destroys any chance you'd have of hearing naturally.  So, if the testing happened to be wrong (which is pretty rare) or by some miracle he can actually hear ok with the hearing aids, it's better to find out sooner rather than later.  If he doesn't show a big enough improvement with the hearing aids, then we can move forward with CIs at that time.  Ryan got fitted for his cool new zebra print hearing aid, and we will pick them up and get them started on August 23rd. :)

Thanks for continuing to check in on our little guy.  Here's hoping we have even more encouraging things to update in the coming weeks.  Prayers for strength, good eating, good weight gain, and good hearing are greatly appreciated!