Cooks appointment

Cooper had his appointment with the pulmonologist at Cooks yesterday. It went alright I suppose. He is gaining weight steadily now, but he still has quite a bit of catching up to do. The doctor is still concerned about the reflux and feels it is quite severe and we need to get it under control. He was also concerned about the high dose of Prevacid Cooper has been taking. He said that it is the same dose he, a grown man, takes for his own reflux! So, we have decided to cut it in half. We have tried pretty much every reflux drug on the market and have seen little if any improvement. We also had the swallow function study done. Cooper was not aspirating the barium when he took from a slow flow nipple, but when he takes from the breast, the speech pathologist could here him aspirating. She felt that he should probably take from the bottle all the time. I was, of course, upset to here this. When we went back to Dr. Hadeed's office, he agreed with her. I asked if we could put Cooper on monitors while he nursed and see if his O2 sats dropped. He had an excellent feeding and they remained in 97-100% which is perfectly normal. He said I can continue to nurse for now. While this is a great relief, I am also concerned because I know he aspirates when he is having a difficult feeding. Also, the doctor feels he aspirates on the way up, when he is refluxing. Dr. Hadeed thinks that it is time we start really considering fundoplication, the surgery to reduce the reflux. I'm starting to agree. We will go back on April 4 and meet with the pediatric surgeon to discuss the operation in detain before making the decision. At the time of surgery, they will also place a "button" or feeding tube in his stomach. This way we can run a formula drip all night long so he can catch up, but continue to breast feed throughout the day. It seems like this is really becoming our best option. I feel that over all our visit was successful and productive. We just have to hang in there over the next month.