The Road to Recovery

First of all, I want to thank you all for your encouragement, prayers and support since my last posting. It is much appreciated and it definitely helps to know we are not alone in our struggle. So much has happened since then that I’m not quite sure where to start!

First of all, I wasn’t pleased with the answers/recommendations we were getting from our pediatrician here…so I called our doctor back home in Oregon. He was my doctor when I was little and also saw Lauren up until the time we moved. I explained to him everything that has taken place, Nolan’s symptoms and the next steps we were told to take. He said based on what the symptoms were, it truly sounded like a bad case of reflux. He said that he would never recommend Reglan for an infant and that he would have put him on Prevacid, not Prilosec. He suggested we try the Prevacid first and then do the Upper GI if we still saw no improvement. He also told us that he has never seen an infant with reflux not get better when taking the Prevacid. I felt so much better after speaking with him and felt “armed and ready” for Nolan’s doctor’s appt that next day (Wednesday).

We took him in Wednesday morning and they tested him for MSPI. It was negative – praise the Lord! They also weighed him and despite how poorly he had been eating, he had gained weight. He was 16 lbs. 4 oz! We spoke with the doctor and told her we would like to try putting him on Prevacid. She was reluctant and really was pushing for us to do the Upper GI, but she agreed to write the prescription for Nolan and wait to see how he responded. She also brought up the Reglan idea again and I told her that was not even an option for us.

Thursday morning, I had an appointment with a lactation nurse for her to observe a feeding. He ate well for the first few minutes and then began his fits of screaming. She could tell just by the way he was swallowing that it was reflux and it was causing too much pain for him to keep eating. But, the good news was that he still ended up getting 6 ounces of milk, despite all his struggling. It was such peace of mind for me to know that he is getting exactly what he needs. Even though it is painful for him, he doesn’t give up – this kid is a fighter!!

Simultaneously, I had done a ridiculous amount of research on the internet, looking up alternative methods of treatment for reflux babies. I found a lot of good information and one of the things I discovered seemed to make sense. Apparently, through pregnancy and the childbirth process, babies can get “out of alignment”, especially when the doctors are pulling them out. Ryan can attest to how un-gentle they were when Nolan was born – they grabbed him by the neck and just pulled. In many newborns, sublaxation can occur, which is where one or more vertebras are not in line and can cause pressure on different nerves of the spine. Babies with sublaxation often present symptoms like reflux, chronic ear infections, breathing problems, etc. Thankfully, there are specialized pediatric chiropractors who can gently, using pressure points (no twisting or cracking), readjust the baby’s spine. Just one visit can eliminate most of their symptoms. So, I found a pediatric chiropractor in our area, who came highly recommended, and set up an appointment for Nolan on Monday.

We will be holding off on starting him on the Prevacid until we see the chiropractor – if we do both at the same time and he gets better, we won’t know what it was that helped him. So, we are again asking for your prayers as we explore these options. I will post another blog next week to update you on his progress.