Getting rid of the reflux

“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”
― Angela Schwindt

Finally when Oli was 7 months old we made the decision to surgically fix her GI reflux.

I could no longer watch her struggle to keep her food down.  Despite thickening her formula, a strict regimen of reflux medication and eating baby food, the reflux was not improving. 

We had to wait several months before making this decision because she didn't fit into her GI doctors normal category of surgical patients. She was still gaining weight, growing, was at that time still sleeping, and was not screaming most hours of the day. The exact opposite of most of his patients. 

He kept putting off the idea of surgical intervention until one day when I brought Oli in for her monthly check up.

"How is she doing?" He asks quietly. He was a tall, gentle, soft spoken man with an awkward personality.

"Well not to good. This cannot be normal." I tell him. Frustrated with her lack of response to his treatments, my goal today is to show him how miserable it was for her.  I laid Oli face down on the crisp, white exam paper. 

"Now just watch." I say as I encourage Oli to lift her head.  This was an ongoing struggle for her because of her lack of visual motivation,. But also because every time she exerted any abdominal force whatever was in her stomach seemed to become pressurized and shot out her nose.  As he is looking down at Oli she performs right on cue.  A thick stream of chunky old milk, tinted green from her lunch comes out her nose.

"This happens every single time I put her on her tummy. You have to do something." 

"Yes okay. I guess it's time to look into surgery." He relents.

"Great. I know a pediatric general surgeon who I'm comfortable with. I'd like him to perform the surgery because I know he won't put in a G-tube unless she absolutely needs it. I don't think she needs one and he agrees."

 A few weeks later Oli had the surgery. She did not need the G-tube.  I was happy that I had found a doctor willing to listen to me and not just put one in, as was the general practice. 

One week after the surgery she began sitting up and was finally comfortable lying on her tummy.