Check Up With Dr. Hassan and Upper GI

Today was the last minute appointment with Evan's Gastroenterologist (Dr. Hassan). We're fortunate that he comes down from Tucson about once a month now. Before Evan's 9:30 appointment, we had to get an Upper GI done on him at Sierra Diagnostics. Dr. Klein was the doctor who did the procedure, which didn't go as well as planned.

The x-ray technician who prepared the Barium drink made it really thin. I was prepared with one of Evan's bottles with a y-cut nipple for thick liquids. Of course Evan went crazy when it came time for him to lay on the x-ray table. When we gave him the bottle with the Barium, he was laying on his back and all the liquid rushed out through the nipple. Poor guy probably felt like he was drowning, so he didn't get enough good swallows for good pictures.

They also took a chest x-ray since Evan had a bout of pneumonia last fall. It was just a precautionary thing to make sure he didn't have any lung damage. Dr. Klein was able to see that all his digestive anatomy was in place; which we pretty much knew already.

Our appointment with Dr. Hassan was quick. He decided to give Evan a prescription for Prevacid; so we stop giving him Zantac and give him this instead. We have to get Evan re-weighed next Thursday at the pediatrician and if he is still losing weight, Dr. Hassan wants a call from the pediatrician. He weighed 8 kilograms when they checked his weight (about 17.6 pounds)

EGD at TMC

Today Evan has his EGD at Tucson Medical Center. The EGD was a "Esophagogastroduodenoscopy"...um, yeah, real easy to say. Basically, Dr. Hassan put a camera down his throat to view his esophagus, stomach and upper duodenum. Evan was put under local anesthesia so he didn't feel a thing during the procedure.

The procedure was very quick, only about 5 minutes, but the prep time to put him under took the most time. Of course Evan was not a happy guy even at the beginning when the nurse was getting his weight and other vital signs. We had to wait a while since there was a back-up of patients, so Evan eventually calmed down and just watched all the nurses go by taking care of the other adult out-patients having similar procedures done. When it came time for the procedure he went right to the anesthesiologist.

After the procedure Evan was vomiting a bit of blood and mucus, which is common with the procedure. It took a little while to get him calmed down and to get him to drink some Pedialyte since he hadn't had anything to eat or drink since the night prior. We met with Dr. Hassn and and he said Evan does have GERD, but it wasn't an extreme case.

He gave Evan a prescription for Zantac that he has to take for the next 2 months (twice a day). If we don't see an improvement in his eating in about a week or so, Dr. Hassan wants to see him again. If we see improvement, we don't have to do a follow-up until 2-3 months. Dr. Hassan thinks this will solve his eating issues. We'll see!