The same afternoon of Georgia's 6 month appointment the pediatrician called me. She had called the pediatric radiologist at the children's hospital and spoke with him regarding what testing we should focus on for Georgia. He said we needed to start with an Upper GI to rule out malformations.
I was told Georgia had to be fasting for 4 hours for this procedure. When I told our nurse who was helping me schedule the exam that she last fed at 11am she got Georgia in for a 2:30 registration & 3pm appt. I left the girls with Cody and headed to the hospital.
I got Georgia registered fairly quickly but we did have to wait a bit for radiology to come get us. At this point Georgia was hungry and I wasn't allowed to feed her. When they came to get us I was relieved knowing she would get to eat once this was over.
They had me take her shirt off and put a baby hospital gown on and he began to explain the steps of the upper GI.
The radiologist came in and spoke with me briefly before starting. They offered Georgia the contrast to drink in a bottle. She was already screaming on the xray table and totally refused the bottle. So I got to syringe feed her the contrast while she was screaming and thrashing around. They took a series of xrays and then it was over. It really wasn't that invasive but Georgia wasn't having it!
The radiologist told me she refluxed twice mildly and that her anatomy was normal with NO malformations. This does not answer the intestinal bleeding and painful screaming.
I wasn't about to drive home in traffic with a screaming, hungry baby so I sat in a chair in the hall near some vending machines and fed her.
That evening our pediatrician called me after receiving the radiology report. She wants Georgia to restart her reflux medicine (once a day vs. twice like before) since she does have proven reflux. She reiterated this didn't address the cause of the bleeding but she felt reassured knowing she wasn't dealing with twisting and needing immediate surgery.
The plan for now is to wait for the lab work to come back before deciding the next step. Praying for quick results and an answer so we can begin healing!
This sounds so, so tough. I'm so sorry your little girl has to go through this...and that you have to go through it too. How powerless you must feel. My son has an MRI on Tuesday and he can't eat for a long time beforehand. I'm so stressed about it...specifically the not eating part. Glad you got to feed her right after the procedure.
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