GASTRO APPOINTMENT

Jonathan finally had his gastro appointment at KK yesterday (24 August 2011).

Dr Chu is a very nice lady.  Jovial and easy to relate to.

She gathered all the information from us with regard to Jonathan's history -

• Was he already retching during early years
• when did we get the surgery done for the PEG (feeding button)
• why did we switch from Karihome goat milk to soy milk

and some other questions.

From our discussion, she told us there are probably 3 possibilities of Jonathan's vomiting episodes:

1. The fundoplication* that was done during the surgery 4 years ago, for the feeding button, has loosened.
   *SEE FUNDOPLICATION
2. The brain sending signals to his body.  She gave an example of a child with fits.  When the brain sends signals to the body, then fits starts.  In Jonathan's case, it's retching.
3. Food allergy.  There might be a small component of food that he's taking that he cannot handle.  One way is to take a blood test but may come negative for food allergies.  The other is to switch to another type of milk formula that has more nutrients for a week to see reaction and then switch back to soy to see if there's another reaction.

Well, we have decided to take the barium test (managed to get a slot on 5 September) and to see what's the outcome.  Jonathan has to fast for 6 hours before taking this test.

And in the meantime, since the next appointment is only 2 months later, she's prescribed 2 types of medication just in case Jonathan needs them.  Ranitidine Syrup and Domperidone.  Both to prevent acid reflux.  Expensive medication.  But so long as he has no gagging or acid reflux, there's no need to take them.

The milk formula she recommended is called Peptamen Junior by Nestle (because of his current weight).  I was shocked by the price : SGD45 for a 400g can of milk powder.

Jonathan's consumption of milk is at least 20 cans of 400g milk powder a month.  It will cost at least SGD900 per month if we decide to switch to this milk powder.

I posted a journal about his feeding issues HERE 2 months ago.  Till today, adding milk to rice water has stopped him from gagging and his got full tummy feed.

So I hope that come 5th September, the results will be good.  There's no reflux and no surgery needed to fix this problem.

Thank you Lord that everything will turn out good and there's going to be a solution to this.

Thanks for dropping by :)