Also this week, Ashley had her first endoscopy. She has the same barky cough as Austin does and she's had it for as long as she's lived as well. She's on the same high-dose acid reflux medication and her endoscopy done on Tuesday confirmed our suspicions of our coughing, hoarse and wheezing baby girl. She, like her big brother, has severe GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease.) We tried everything on Austin to get down to his problems but now at least we know what she has and what we'll be in store for.
Since Austin has experienced this and no medications are helping his severe case, his specialists agreed (as did we) that it's time that we do the necessary surgery to take care of his GERD. The procedure is called a fundoplication. It's where they tie the upper stomach around the esophagus so that no acid can go past the sphincter that doesn't hold any of his stomach acids down. (Which in turn burn his esophagus, acid goes into his bronchial tubes/lungs and he has a constant cough, and is wheezing and exaccerbates his asthma. So we're hoping to get the procedure done in the next couple of months. We've done everything we can through drug therapy all his life but now is the time to take care of this.
Unfortunately, Ashley is so young, they won't go ahead and do the surgery like Austin's getting done before they run more tests when she's closer to 4 or 5. I just know what Austin's been through and little sister is in the same boat.
We'll let you know when the surgery is scheduled for for our little guy!
Love,
Angie
2 comments:
It looks like chocolate made it all better. What a sweetie. Give her hugs and kisses from Hilde and Enoch.
Angie- she is such a sweetheart and I am sorry you guys have to worry about that. Good luck with it all.
Post a Comment