Aaron's EGD

Aaron had the scope put down into his esophagus on Tuesday. 
The day started off frustrating.  Our van left is sitting after getting gas.  Thankfully, a kind man gave it a jump and we were able to pull it out of the entrance of the store parkinglot.  But I was leary about driving another 30minutes and having it cause more trouble further away from home.  My oldest daughter, Crystal, had plans that fell through that morning, so I called her.  She came and got us, and waited with me while Aaron had his procedure done.
When we got into the surgical center, I mentioned that I had discussed with the pre-anesthesia nurse that we were not comfortable with him having Propofal, and she had assured me that there were other options for anesthesia.  Well, the anesthesiologist came in and said there weren't really any other options, since it was not in the main hospital.  He said that whoever had reviewed Aaron's chart had cleared him for Propofal.  He was gracious enough to go searching for something else, but made no promises about finding anything.  I sat there, feeling the anxiety rising, feeling like I could not trust them.  He returned after a while to tell me he found another medication and we were set.  Praise God!

The scope showed that Aaron has strictures at the bottom of his esophagus, consistent with longterm acid reflux.  He asked if Aaron had complained about burning or pain in the past.  No, never, not until after his illness in July.  I have always described Aaron's appetite and eating to that of a rottweiler puppy, gobble it down and look for the next bowl.  He also questioned how Aaron was as a baby, less than 1yo, if he spit up a lot.  Yes,  he was a horrible spitter.  He would spit up hours after nursing, and it would be the consistency of sour cream. 

The GI doctor thinks what happened is that Aaron has been having reflux, possibly since he was a baby, which caused some scar tissue to build up.  Then, when he was sick in July, the excess vomitting, and then the NG tube, caused the scarring to become worse, making the opening more narrow, til it was too small to allow larger peices of food and medication to pass through.

The plan:  They will be stretching his esophagus at a later date.  They could not do it on Tuesday, since they needed to do biolpsies, to check for eosinophilical esophegitis (which was negative).  They also increased the frequency of Prilosec.

We are thankful it was not neurological damage.