Thursday, February 5, 2009

Doctor Appointment Update

Well it was yet another long day but now we are home and YES, we survived!

The first appointment was with the Cardiologist. He finally contacted me about Carson's holter monitor and told me there were a couple of "events" of bradycardia. Again Brady means slow and Cardia has to do with your heart. So apparently he had a couple of events where his heartbeat dipped down to low numbers that are of concern. So what does this mean for Carson? They are going to bring out a monitor to my house where it will somehow send his rhythm through my telephone. Has anybody ever heard of this or had and experiences with this? I would love to hear from you. The doctor then explained that his heart will be monitored through a company in Pennsylvania and if he has any episodes regardless of the time, the company will call me immediately and find out what he is doing and make sure I'm aware of his problems. If it is something serious, Dr A will be paged at that time as well to see what he wants us to do. I am very impressed with this technology.

He also wants me to call Apria and have them fax over an order for him to sign off on for a pulse ox for Carson when he is asleep. He wants to make sure that Carson is staying above 95% and anything below that he will consider putting him on oxygen at night as well.

So then it was off to GI. This is the partly good news. Dr K told me that he wanted to change Carson's reflux medicine and if we can find one that does good for him, he thought he would start eating and even sleep for me. He said that the reflux he is experiencing is probably causing more than 50% of his problems. He said that if Carson is associating the pain when he eats, he isn't going to eat. He said that because this behavior is going on now (at age 2), he wants to get aggressive to finding a medicine that will help him now so that he doesn't continue with this behavior. He also said he wants to try a different medicine that has a longer acting control so that hopefully he won't wake up in the middle of the night with pain that is associated with heart burn. So here is the good news, if we find that the new RX is working, he will start eating more orally, we will be able to lose the NG tube in as soon as a month!!!!! Now he said that it may take two months but he thinks we are definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

So this brings me to my last bit of news on Carson, we are leaving the allergy clinic and the special care clinic. Dr K said we are seeing too many doctors and they are all stepping on each other. So Dr K will take care of his reflux, eating issues, and allergies, and Pulmonary will just stay on top of his asthma related issues. Of course we will stay with Cardiology but we won't see him now until after the 30 days and then Dr K said we will just go from there. That meant so much to me that he is willing to step up and do more than just the GI part. Less doctors equals less doctors appointments!!! Can you tell that I'm happy here???

Well I must go now. I had Coltan and Cody come home tonight and we had my homemade Lasagna for dinner and we just finished up and now we are going to sit down and watch CSI together.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. I'm feeling really good for the first time in a long time about Carson and him getting better. Wouldn't that be great if all of these problems were caused by reflux?

15 comments:

mommy to Kaden, Brody and angel Ava said...

Sounds like great news all around. It is always nice to have a break once in awhile. Glad you had a great day today.

Love the pictures by the way.

Gutsy Living said...

I looked at Carson's photos, and he is a handsome, healthy looking boy, with beautiful hair, eyes and smile. It's difficult to imagine he's got health problems, when you see his photos. I agree it must be frustrating to have so many Doctors and perhaps too much advice. Good to hear that one may be able to solve problems. I admire your strength. Keep giving us more good news.

Pam said...

Praying that the reflux meds work!! They didn't work for Rhett, but the Nissen did, so if you can't find something and reflux really is a huge issue, you might want to talk to the GI doc about that.

Reflux could also be a factor with his heart. Rhett normally has brady anyhow, but when he had the reflux issues his heart rate would shoot up really high as he was refluxing and then shoot down really fast too. It was really scary to watch on the monitor.

Reflux could also be contributing to his respriotory issues.

Sorry I haven't been commenting. I've gotten lazy with my google reader. I read every post though.

Love you guys.

Pam and Rhett

Me said...

Sounds like a fairly productive day! Hopefully the new reflux meds will be the ticket to good health all around for him. Odd how they never figured that out before now!

Rachel Dominguez said...

Yea!!! Glad to hear all the good news and that progress is being made. You and Carson both deserve a break.

I hope that this new med works and Carson will be able to be an normal active two yr old without all these devises.

Love you guys,
Rach

Unknown said...

That does sound pretty interesting and on top of things! :)

Angie said...

That is AWESOME news! I had a tear in my eye just reading that and thinking about how much that might change little man for the better! I want him to be able to have a chance to be a little 2 year old rugrat and maybe now he will have a chance! What a great way to start my morning-and it is Friday!

Thanks for always supporting me as well-it means A TON!!!
Angie

Kaci said...

That is great news! I hope the reflux meds work - that would be wonderful! I've never heard of the monitoring sending a signal through the phone but that is pretty cool that they can do it.

Did you say homemade lasagna?

Farming Fabulously said...

It is wonderful to hear that everything is moving in the right direction for Carson. I can not believe how advanced the technology really is now a days. You all will continue to be in our prayers.

Would love for you to post the Lasagna recipe.

Lacey said...

It sounds like a monitor Jax once had. But I would push a button if i say an episode. Then i would call on the phone and transfer it to them. It was very strange. Hopefully it works.

Spaghetti said...

You totally made me smile. I am so happy for you! I hope things keep looking up. Praise God!

Lindsey said...

Hey Kaci,

Sounds like you have had a busy week, but overall good news for Carson. Hope you have a fun but relaxing weekend. I'm thinking you deserve it. :o)

Both Ryan & I have family that live in Lee's Summit. We love it there! What a small world/blogging world! Ha! When we lived over in Missouri we lived in Wood Bridge right between Warnell and Holmes and like 130th. I had a lot of friends in the Red Bridge area. My Grandma even used to live over there and I loved eating Lamars Doughnuts!! That is just too cool. I wonder if I've seen your mom's hair salon. Wasn't the grocery store Lapari's (sp?) over there? It's probably gone by now or changed names.

You guessed my age right on the dot! I'm 25 (and a half on Ground Hogs day). Just in case you ever want to send me a private e-mail as well mine is lindseyebright@gmail.com. I am so glad we connected! It is just so fun. Have a great weekend blogging buddy!

Lindsey

Wendy Hill said...

Love, love, love the comic scene of the mother complaining that the kids still get in, even though she's child-proofed the house! Ha! That is a great one!

Praying the new focus on the reflux resolves a whole host of issues for Carson. Our bodies are such complex, amazing things.

danette said...

Good news, sounds like ya'll are getting closer to some answers. I'll continue to keep your family in my thoughts and prayers.

btw, love the comic pic, lol :)

Tracey said...

I am glad you had some good news. I hope the new meds work! Take care!