Cowboy Boots and Silly Ties

Well, I was wrong about one thing.  Emma was not just another name on the sign-in sheet at her new GI doctor.  He spent almost an entire hour in the office with us.  I was very careful to say just enough about our old doctor to let him know about the lack of care she had received but not so much to badmouth him.  (And, for the record, I have been very careful about not sharing his name as much as possible because I am sure there are plenty of children out there who have been helped while under his care.  We just weren't that lucky.  I also thought it was very classy of our new doctor that he did not talk negatively about the previous doctor.)

This new doctor was very straightforward, and I could tell within a few minutes that he was a perfect fit for Emma.  She loved his silly tie, his cowboy boots, and the funny way he obsessively rubbed the edges of his goatee...but most of all, she loved that he talked to her.  And that he had a plan.  It was June 21, 2012, when she started seeing him, which means the school year was over and summer was in full swing.  Emma had missed thirty-something days second semester and was put on intermittent homebound to help fill in any gaps from her absences.

At this time, Emma was throwing up 4-5 days a week, a dozen or so times each day (sometimes more). She had diarrhea most days, and her pain often woke her up at night.  The doctor told her that it was his goal to at least cut that in half before the end of summer.  He told her he couldn't realistically promise her she would be completely better before her next school year started, but he was going to do everything within his power to help her.

The first thing he did was take her off of the high doses of Hyoscyamine and put her on a low dose of Amitriptyline.  He also put her on Ranitidine in the morning and at night.  The toughest thing for us was the strict diet he put her on.  She was no longer supposed to have fried foods, fatty foods, caffeine, carbonated beverages, chocolate, or processed foods.  She was to eat six small meals a day.  Basically, she was put on the GERD diet for reflux.

We spent the rest of the summer following this diet, taking the new meds, having tests run, and being heard by this new GI doctor.  (He spends at least 30-45 minutes in the office with us every time Emma is seen, and I have noticed he does the same for all of his patients.)

By the time school had started back, we had still had no diagnosis, but Emma had lost 16 pounds (because of the new diet) and was now only throwing up 2-3 days a week, and sometimes only a half a dozen or so times each day.  We had made progress!