Quick Update

I have about five minutes for a quick update.  Seeing that it’s 10 days after Elena’s GI appointment, I need to give you the rundown.  So, appointment went as expected.  Her GI doc is great, but there’s only so much she can do.  She did run several tests to rule out things like something with her G-tube, constipation and a more severe issue (ie gallbladder, liver, stomach, etc.)  Elena had a endoscopy several months ago, so we knew there wasn’t anything terribly wrong with her esophagus.  So, we’re trying an old med that we’ve done before to see if that helps.  But no real answers.

Elena also saw her longtime speech therapist this week, who thinks, for whatever reason, Elena’s gag reflex has been heightened.  So, anything that may have not made her gag in the past, is making her gag now, hence her throwing up and gagging ALL THE TIME.  This definitely makes the most sense to us, as Elena has been realllllly gaggy for quite some time.  And she usually starts as a cough or a weird gag before throwing/spitting up.  So, there’s that…which isn’t necessarily the easiest problem to treat.

Elena had been doing a little better since her appointment, only having spit ups and mostly around her feeding times.  Then Tuesday at the JC, I got a call saying she had thrown up everything and more during therapy.  So, I guess the silver lining was that for once I didn’t have to clean it up?  Yay?

For now it’s just something we will be dealing with until it’s better.  That’s a tough one to swallow (pun intended) but such is life with child who has feeding/swallowing issues.  We’ll just keep praying for her gag reflex to settle back down (such an odd prayer request!) and hope that between God and medicine, she’ll get some relief.

I’ll leave you at least with a cute video of Elena with one of her faves, Miss Lisa (her OT).  Miss Lisa has been with Elena since she was 6 months old and Elena LOVES her.  Each week, we start her session with B-I-N-G-O (one of her favorite songs) and bouncing (another fave) to get Elena to look at Miss Lisa in the eyes, on her left….a really tough task for Elena.  She knows this game, but is always such a stinker!  I took a video of it because every week, I love watching Elena’s face during this exercise.  It just makes me happy.