Tuesday, March 31

The past week has been a little frustrating. Taylor continues to have problems keeping food down. Over the last week, Taylor has gone from throwing up once a day to two and even three times a day. The doctors tried to do a gastric emptying study (Definition at bottom) on Thursday to get answers to why she continues to get sick. Basically, they stopped her feeds at 9:30am and didn't feed her until 4pm. Then, they gave her a little over 3 ounces over a 15 minute time period. We argued that it was too much food over a short period of time; however the doctor said this is how they had to do it. After she ate, she was supposed to lye still for 2 hours while a machine took pictures of her stomach every fifteen minutes. Forty-five minutes into the study, she vomited so they had to quit. Because, they could not complete the study it was in-valid. They have opted not to try this again, because they feel she will have the same results.

Friday, Taylor underwent another swallow study to see if the baby food they were trying to give to her by mouth was going into her stomach or into her lungs. This study went much better than the first study they tried 3 weeks ago. During the first study, she wouldn't even keep the food in her mouth. This time, she took it and swallowed it. The study showed that the thicker substance they gave her, which was honey thick, went down correctly to her stomach. However, the fine liquids such as apple juice and water went to her lungs. Taylor coughed and turned red and they said that was a good sign, because at least she realized that it went down the wrong pipe. So, now at least we know where to start and what is going where.

As of today, insurance is still up in the air as to if they will continue to cover another week. Our doctor was supposed to have a phone conference this afternoon to discuss the feeding plan. Our cardiologist sent Taylor's echo back to Duke to see if they would re-consider the G-Tube surgery. Everyone here feels we should go ahead with the G-Tube surgery if Duke accepts her. Evidentially, there is a procedure with the surgery where they can wrap her stomach so she would not be able to throw up. Insurance is also saying Taylor does not rate In-Home Nursing when we take her home. Jeff and I were disappointed because we were hoping we would be able to get a little help when we took her home. We got a little taste of what life would be like this past Sunday with her and the boys... and it is not going to be easy!

We took Taylor home Sunday morning for the day and it was an EXPERIENCE! Although, it felt GREAT to be home with her and the boys, it was also nerve racking! Taylor threw up two out of three meals and the boys were fighting for attention every step of the way. Tate kept trying to climb the outside of her crib. He was very excited to see her and kept yelling b-a-b-y! I think the atmosphere was too loud because Taylor seemed a little fussier than normal. It was good we were able to take Taylor home for the day. This allowed us to get some things figured out before her next visit home...

Well, that's about it for now. Please continue to pray for Taylor's healing. We love you guys! Tammy
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http://www.medicinenet.com/gastric_emptying_study/article.htm
What is a gastric emptying study?

A gastric emptying study is a procedure that is done by nuclear medicine physicians using radioactive chemicals that measures the speed with which food empties from the stomach and enters the small intestine. Gastric emptying studies are used for testing patients who are having symptoms that may be due to slow and, less commonly, rapid emptying of the stomach. The symptoms of slow emptying are primarily nausea, vomiting, and abdominal fullness after eating. The symptoms of rapid emptying are diarrhea, weakness or light-headedness after eating after eating.

How is a gastric emptying study done?

For a gastric emptying study, a patient eats a meal in which a solid component of the meal (for example, scrambled egg), a liquid component of the meal (for example, water), or both, are mixed with a small amount of radioactive material. A scanner (acting like a Geiger counter) is placed over the patient's stomach to monitor the amount of radioactivity in the stomach for several hours after the test meal is eaten. As the radioactively-labelled food empties from the stomach, the amount of radioactivity in the stomach decreases. The rate at which the radioactivity leaves the stomach reflects the rate at which food is emptying from the stomach
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God Bless

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