Medical Update

I figured I would give you all an update on me and the boys. We saw the GI doctor for Ian’s reflux issues Thursday. A week ago we were actually trying to decide if we should even keep the appointment since Ian was doing so much better being on the Zantac and Prevacid combined. Well, we did go, obviously….and the doctor said that since he was doing so much better there was no need to do any tests like an upper GI, endoscopy or anything else. He said we will just keep doing what we are doing, except he wants to try to get him off one of the medications. So we are going to slowly start to wean him off the Zantac and just keep him on Prevacid. We tried this once before and it didn’t fly, but we didn’t slowly lower the dose over several days like we are going to do this time. He is doing so much better and eating so well now, its great! He does still spit up quite a bit but its just something we have to live with, and I’ll take a little spit up over watching him be miserable every time he eats any day.

Hayden is doing pretty well being on Zantac but the last week or two we have noticed him getting fussier than normal and a little less content than he used to be. So while we were at the GI doc today, we mentioned it to him and he said that normally he doses the Zantac 3 times a day (we are doing 2 times) and he said his dose can be increased. He also said that our bodies tend to get used to Zantac (H2 blockers in general) and we eventually need more and more to keep it controlled. He was going to send an email to our pediatrician about Ian so he said he would mention this recommendation about Hayden as well. We are going to leave the amount the same for now, (until we see the pedi in 2 weeks) but increase it to 3 times a day. I may see if we can just switch him to Prevacid as well and wean him off the zantac. Hayden is doing really well too and has become quite a pudgy little boy! A cute pudgy boy though, I mean look at him…

Hayden wearing daddy's hat

As far as I am go, I saw my cardiologist about 2 weeks ago and we switched my medications again in hopes that the new meds will keep me from having the episodes of chest pain. She has diagnosed me with coronary artery spasms, that basically do what is sounds like…my coronary arteries spasm. This leads to a decreased amount of oxygen getting to my heart and that causes the severe chest pain. So basically I take this new medication everyday and if I do have an episode I am to use my nitroglycerin and I go to the ER for pain medication if the pain just gets too unbearable. The pain meds don’t do anything to stop the spasms but it masks the pain and I can tolerate it until the spasms stop. The episodes usually last anywhere from an hour to 3 hours and are horrible! I go to bed at night praying I don’t wake up in severe pain. I feel like I’m 80 yrs old when I’m standing in line at the pharmacy getting my nitro filled. I have had one episode since starting the new medication and I’ll go back and see my cardio on Monday. Not sure what she’ll do so we’ll see. Last week, she did want to make sure nothing else was going on so we did a gallbladder ultrasound and a cardiac MRI and MRA (angiogram), both of which came back ok. Here is an awesome picture from my MRA to show you. I think it’s awesome, anyway!

I told you it was awesome….the technology these days is great!

Now for Jonathan….there’s really nothing to report on him. He’s never sick, injured, etc. And that is a good thing! I hope he stays that way, we need at least one medical problem free parent – ha! He did, however, topple over and land on his rump yesterday while trying to shovel the ice from the driveway so we could get his car in the garage. He landed right on his bum and then the shovel came down and landed on his leg. I told him he was never to do that again! Here is a quick video message or public service announcement brought to you by Jonathan…

And of course, I can’t leave you with just a picture of Hayden. I have to show you a cute picture of Ian too, I mean he is so stinkin cute, how could I not?! (I may be a little biased, though)

Ian at the GI doc