I am happy that I know what’s going on with my tummy but the medicine I have now tastes disgusting.

We said

As the title of the blog suggests, this week we had a big scare. As Danielle has been sharing in the blog since May this year when Emelia came down with a gastrointestinal virus her tummy has never been the same since. It took her forever to recover from the initial virus and ever since she’s had a sour tummy ever since. Pepto has been her best friend. They’ve done bloodwork and stool samples in May and it came back clear.

In September the suggestion was that she may have gastritis and we were on a month’s worth of antibiotics to combat that. The problem was the capsules were huge and Emelia doesn’t do well with pills. Two days in and her having nothing but trouble swallowing the capsules, and after a call to the pharmacist a dissolvable version was swapped in. After a month on that prescription, there was no remedy in sight as she was still having the symptoms.

The next step was to test for lactose intolerance which meant a drastic change to Emelia’s diet which had milk products in it in every way, shape and form. Pretty much after three days on this, she was still having symptoms. We kept dietary for another month solid because we wanted to be certain and still there was no reprieve.

In October with it still not getting any better and the suggestion of a friend they tested her for H. pylori which came back negative. At our Family Doctor’s suggestion we booked Emelia for an Ultrasound and Upper GI series which took place a couple of weeks ago. Both Danielle and I have been through them ourselves and were not looking forward to them for Emelia as we know what’s involved – but we wanted answers and – more importantly – resolution to what she’s been dealing with at this point almost six months.

Two weeks ago, midweek we had the ultrasound and upper gastrointestinal series done. It wasn’t Emelia’s favourite thing ever – especially the fasting the night before – but we were hopeful we’d get closer to a solution. The test, came and went and still we forged on with a lactose free diet and a steady regiment of Pepto and tummy pain. We were starting to feel at our wits end wanting nothing more than for her to feel a hundred percent and not worried about eating the things that she loved.

And then finally Monday around the time we were expecting to hear from our Family Dr., we got a call that was more than a little bit off-putting. The Dr.’s office told Danielle they had the results back, and there was an opening the next day that we needed to come in for. Normally, when we try and see her it’s not that fast or immediate. To say we were a little worried was an understatement. We’ve heard all sorts of stories about getting test results and an immediate need to be in to discuss with a Dr. and it never ends with very uplifting news. As much as Danielle and I tried to play off it wasn’t worrisome the rest of that day, it absolutely was as a cellular level.

That night I got maybe 3 hours of sleep at a time, waking up to bizarre, nonsensical nightmares, and every time I woke up, Danielle happened to be up too. To say we had one of the worst sleeps ever in our lives would be the most accurate description you could give. Danielle in her moments of wide-awake worry was traumatized with web searches for possible outcomes. In the morning when alarms we were supposed to have rung, we were up long ahead of them, unrested and worried. I had to head off to some volunteer work we were doing for work, and Danielle had the daycare arriving like usual. As much as the day tried to be normal, it was anything but to us.

Finally the appointment came and within minutes, all of our worst case scenarios were ruled out with the words, “the ultrasound came back clear” and then “the Upper GI found that she has excessive folds in her stomach which is trapping acids in her stomach, which we think is from gastritis.” So, all of the worst case scenarios that we had worked out in our minds were immediately tossed back to the ‘You Crazy’ pile. But, the next immediate thought was let your Dr. Office know when the say we, have your test results back we need to see you tomorrow, what that can mean to worrisome parents.

So… The good news is that she has gastritis and we can treat it. AND that it is not as bad as we feared. It does mean another month of medications but hopefully on the back side of that some solution to this six month journey of intestinal ‘fun’. But in the terms of where we started this week and the ulcer-inducing worries we’ve had, this is such a better place to be at the end of the week, for sure!