When your child has an health issue ,small or large, there is always decisions to be made. When your child has several issues going on you have to prioritize what needs immediate attention and what can put on the back burner. Ava's hip dislocation has become the priority at this point. This is not something that can wait. The healing process is long and can only be estimated. We have 7 weeks and 4 days until her first hip surgery (not that I am counting) and I am trying to use the time wisely. As a parent you never want to put your child through any unnecessary tests and at times tons of information can be thrown at you. I am feeling as if we are in a time crunch in solving her growth issue. Once she is in a Spica cast we do not want to do any additional testing until it is off. That will be tough enough for Ava, there is no need to make that time more stressful. The search will be put on hold for who knows how long. I just want my baby to grow and be as healthy as possible while she is healing. I have been taking Ava to most of her doctor's appointments. Luckily I have a fantastic memory and I can come home and relay all the information from the visit to David. From there, together we decide what our next step will be.
My friend Meg, who is a nurse, for years has been mine and David's go to person for medical advice and information. Meg and I have been friends since third grade, got married 9 months apart and gave birth to our first born 5 weeks apart. With permission from my OB, Meg got to observe my c-section when Ava was born. We have been there for each other through the happiest and saddest moments of life. She has been a tremendous help to us through all this chaos. Meg has helped us make many informed decisions by not only giving the medical reasoning but giving it with compassion about what to do or not to do being a mother herself. She answers questions I may have or poses questions to ask the doctor. After our office visit with the GI doctor, I had many questions about the Endoscopy test that Dr. T had talked about in the future. I wanted to know exactly what it was, what it looked at, benefits of having it, length of time it took and my biggest concern, anesthesia. There was a decision to be made and I wanted it to an informed one. Although Dr. T had explained things to me I needed more. I wanted the pros and cons of the test as well as the Mom to Mom opinion. Meg knows every aspect of Ava's medical history and I knew, like in the past I would get the best advice possible. The ultimate decision would be mine and Davids' but at least we had someone to help make things more clear.
An Endoscopy is a test used to examine the esophagus, stomach and upper intestine. After sedation a small tube with a camera and light on the end is inserted down the throat to examine the inside the digestive tract. The thing that scares me the most about this test is the sedation. Meg was able to give me the pro sides to my fears and help me form the questions I needed to ask. The biggest point made that day was proper nutritional growth is important to healing, why not find an answer or cross something off the list why we had the chance. Ava's next GI check up is 3 weeks before the surgery. If she did not gain anything there would not be enough time to do the test After discussing it with David, we decided we wanted the test done and as soon as possible. I called Dr. T the next day and she agreed that the test would eventually need to be done. If we were okay with it, so was she. Next Thursday we will take Ava to Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark to have an Endoscopy. My hope is that an answer can be found so we can get her as healthy as possible before June 12th.
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