What's going on with Ammon

When Ammon was a baby he was very spitty. There were times I'd have to change my shirt because he spit up so much. Then when he became a toddler it turned more to stomach acid breath. When Ammon was about 2 I decided I'd had enough of him spitting up and having such yucky smelling breath. I called the Dr and over the phone he sent in a prescription for prevacid. Right away the meds started to work. We'd try taking him off them and the longest he could go would be about a month before his symptoms returned with a vengeance.
The dentist was concerned with the acid hurting his teeth, but they have so far been unaffected by the acid.
After about a year on the meds, they became less affective, and within a few months we doubled the dose. This seemed to work for a few months, but then it also stopped being affective. During the time from 3 1/2 -4 years old Ammon would have throw up episodes where he'd wake up throwing up and be really tired. I'd get him down for a nap and when he woke up around lunchtime he was fine and ready to eat. These happen every 3-4 weeks.


At Ammon's 4 year checkup I said I wanted to go see the pediatric GI specialist to find out what else we could do. We got an apt in late June, just before Rebecca was due.
They decided to do a endoscope and take some biopsy's to get a better look at what was going on. We scheduled it for July 22nd @ 3pm. We were very open with Ammon in letting him know what was going to happen at the apt. For the weeks before he kept asking when his "needle poke day" was. He was excited for it to come.
The day of his apt Simeon also had an apt with his oncologist for chemo. Ammon had to fast and we weren't sure how he would handle that. Ammon never asked for food, and only once said he was thirsty. He patiently waiting through Simeon's apt. When Simeon was getting his chemo the nurse came and got Ammon to start checking him in.
Ammon was brought to the recovery room where he would be before and after his procedure. They put "special lotion" aka numbing cream on both hands and forearms, so they'd have lots of numb places to place the IV.


We participated in a study on pain management. We drew the lot to have me be the sole person to distract him during the IV placement. Ammon did awesome with it. The vein in his right hand blew, so they moved to his right forearm and got it placed. He was so curios watching them placing the IV. He only one time seemed scared and needed to be distracted to calm down. He was so sweet telling them "I can feel that" "Can you take the needle out please." Then when they moved to his arm he told them "you don't need to do that now." "We can wait" He was very polite and asked them "please" lots of times, but they still had to put the IV in.
The sedation nurse came to meet us and she was so kind and helpful. She was also a NICU nurse so she just loved over Rebecca.


When it was time to go to the treatment room, the nurse gave him half of the silly medicine so that he would be calm on the ride down the hallway. They have been doing remodeling on the floor and the treatment room used to be the infusion room where Simeon would get blood and chemo.
The nurse was very tricky on getting the nasal cannula on Ammon. She had him smell it then she smelled it and had him smell it again and placed it in his nose and he didn't even fuss with it. Then she gave him to sedation meds. He was put completely out. He was very agitated as he was going down. It was hard to see him like that. The nurse told me I could go once he was almost all the way down. It was so hard to walk out and leave him, but to be honest I was glad that I didn't need to stay and watch. I can handle alot of things, but seeing an endoscope on my 4 year old was more then I think I could have handled.


The scope took about 40 minutes-alittle longer then they said it would take.
When they brought him back he was completely asleep. He had the nasal cannula on, but without any airflow in it. He also had 3 sensors on his chest to watch his heart rate and breathing, and a pulse/oxygen monitor on his finger.


I was told he'd wake up in 20-30 minutes. After an hour the nurse came to help him wake up. He was given a 2nd sedation med during the procedure. I think he was taking advantage of a much needed summertime nap.
Once he woke up he started asking really politely for them to take the needle out. He was looking at all the monitors, and he even got to take the sensors off his chest and stomach. Then he started asking to go home.


We needed to go to the pharmacy, and he got a ride in a wheelchair-which just made his day. While we waited for Simeon's chemo Ammon perked up and ended up walking out of the hospital.
We stopped at McDonalds for dinner-which he just started at, but ended up eating hours later when he was fully back to himself.

The Results
He has inflammation in his esophagus and they increased his meds. He now take 30ml before breakfast and 15ml before dinner. His throwing up episodes has to do with his reflux. We are partially treating his condition. We go back in 3 months unless things don't seem to be improving.