Iker Family

July 01, 2011

Surgery

Ambrose's broncoscopy biopsies showed lipids in his lungs, which means he is aspirating his food, probably in his sleep.
The fundoplication will be schedueled for early August.

June 22, 2011

The first results of the biopsies won't be available for another week, but immediate appearance of the GI tract is normal; his airways, however are inflamed. No indication yet as to the cause of the inflammation, could be viral or bacterial infection from aspiration of food or refluxed stomach contents. No cause for concern yet, we'll wait and see what the biopsies show.
One snag with the bronchoscopy was that the pulmonologist was not able to retrieve all of the saline wash used to collect samples from the lung. The result being that the sample collected was smaller than preferred, but still enough to grow a general culture; the fluid left in Ambrose's lung should be absorbed by his body with no problems.
Ambrose was pretty cranky coming out of anesthesia, but was distracted and calmed easily when I pointed out the stars on his hospital gown and sang "twinkle twinkle little star".

June 21, 2011

Procedure

On Wednesday Ambrose will be put under general anesthesia for a repeat Upper GI Endoscopy and Bronchoscopy.

The endoscopy will probably show evidence of reflux, and if so, the recommendation will be surgery (Fundoplication) to tighten his esophagus, preventing stomach contents from creeping up and causing acid burns.

The bronchoscopy will help to get a better understanding of the state of his lungs. Because of the prematurity of his lungs at birth, Ambrose suffers from chronic lung disease, which is being treated like asthma. Although he does not have asthma "attacks", his blood oxygen saturation does decrease when he sleeps. It is probably not a procedure that would have been ordered, were he not going under anesthesia anyway for the endoscopy.

Since he expends so many calories repairing both his esophagus and lungs, he has gained only two ounces since March. If we do end up with the fundo, he should gain weight dramatically. There are some horror stories online about botched fundos, but then I guess the families who are satisfied with theirs aren't blogging about it - they're doing normal family things instead.

He still wears a pelvic brace to help deepen the socket of his hip, but doesn't let it stop him from crawling, walking, running, climbing. He's a sweet, happy little boy and doesn't seem to mind all the fuss.