Our sweet Fiona is returning to the surgical room Wednesday, May 30Th. Although she is just three years old, over the past eight months she has had pneumonia five times. Two cases required hospital stays. In our efforts to discover the cause Fiona recently underwent a procedure to test for reflux (GERD). A new technology was used called the Bravo™ pH Monitoring System. A capsule, about the size of a gel cap, was temporarily attached to the wall of Fiona's esophagus. It measured pH levels in her esophagus and transmited readings via radio telemetry to a Receiver Fiona wore on her waistband.(pictured below on her back) The capsule collected data for 48 hours. After we turned in the receiver they uploaded the data to a computer for analysis.
Bravo pH Capsule $800
Bravo pH Receiver $10,000
Co-pay for the procedure $10
Diagnosis and treatment plan....Priceless
Diagnosis: GERD. The results of the 48 hour study revealed 58 episodes of reflux and for about 2.6% of the day she had acid sitting in her esophagus. Acid enters her lungs causing infection that leads to Pneumonia.
Treatment Plan: Surgical. We met with Dr. Applebaum to schedule a Fundoplication. This is where they take the top of your stomach and wrap it around your esophagus so that you can't reflux. We also know from previous studies she has slow gastric emptying, which means just that, her stomach empties into her intestines slowly.
When she had her feeding tube put in at 13 months they opened up the pyloric muscle between the stomach and the intestines to give her more room to pass the food through, but they may want to open it up more.
We have a gastric study study scheduled for Wednesday, May 16th. The surgery scheduled for Wednesday, May 30th. We are trusting God for our dear sweet Fiona and know that He is so good to us. We pray that we will be able to be a testiomony to all we come in contact with and that we will be able to tell them about the great hope we have in Christ!
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