1st stop, hospital for xrays - 2nd stop, ball game!

Annabelle's appetite is nearly obsolete and our doctors are very anxious to rearrange her medications so we can begin a few tests that will hopefully lead us to a diagnosis. I made contact with our GI last week and she suggested we begin a new drug now to stimulate Annabelle's appetite and see if that can curb a few concerns. She still however did not feel comfortable allowing us to come off prednisone and strongly urged me to weigh the immediate consequences if we made that choice. Based on Annabelle's last endoscopy and Eosinophil count, her numbers being in the upper 50s are extremely high, it's doubtful that the Eosinophilic Esophaghitis and her Eosinophil counts are in remission at this point, especially considering we don't even know what set it off to begin with. (Another theory that I share with a few of our others doctors, is that we don't believe the Eosinophils are only located within her esophagus, we fear they are spread throughout her body but we're only looking/testing/seeing them in this one place we scope). For the safety of Annabelle, she needs to remain on the steroids, and I do agree, but the side effects of doing so weigh heavily at it's dangers. Decisions, decisions.

The appetite stimulant that was prescribed is called Periactin, we've used this drug before and it did work, but not to the significance we hoped it would. Periactin was our last effort before placing Annabelle on a feeding tube last year. I prayed it would fix all her malnourishment issues and she would be able to safely nourish her body on her own and drink enough formula without needing a tube.. it worked, but not to the extent Annabelle was malnourished. We are giving Periactin a try now and it seems to be working well.. her appetite is slightly improving and hopefully it will continue to do so.

In the meantime, our GI still had numerous concerns about Annabelle's pain / sudden lack of interest in putting anything in her mouth. I have concerns about the Nissen and that possibly constributing to why Annabelle doesn't like to eat anymore. The GI had concerns about the penny that was swallowed a few weeks ago. She asked:

Dr: Did you see her swallow the penny?
Me: No.
Dr: Did anyone beside her sister see her swallow it?
Me: No. In fact, they both told me she DIDNT swallow a penny.
Dr: It did pass, correct?
Me: Yes, the next evening it did.
Dr: So we know for sure that was the ONLY penny she swallowed.
Me: Nope. Not a clue.
Dr: We need to do a scan and order multiple xrays ASAP.


While the orders were written and my doctor decided where we should be sent to have them done, I finished a few things from work and headed to pickup Annabelle from the nurse. She was asleep as usual, and looked just exhausted. On the drive to the hospital, I caught her sweet stare in the rear-view mirror, I jokingly told her "Annabelle Grace, if you are hoarding a random $0.36 cents in your GI system little girl, so help me, and so help you!" she laughed at my empty threats and I winked at her as I merged off the interstate. We made our way thru the hospital where we were immediately taken to back with two wonderful nurses. I don't know what strings had to be pulled to expedite the process, but I was sure glad we didn't have to spend hours in a waiting room with a tired cranky Annabelle.

Belle did alright for the first few minutes. Then she recognized the table/xray machines. She lost it. My heart sank faster than it has in a long time at the pure fear I could see on her face. I don't know what hurt me most, the reality of our life and how often I have to hold her down for procedures, or the raw fear Annabelle is developing over every aspect of the medical world. The last three times we had xrays, Annabelle was in extreme pain and they were indeed horrible for her.. she wasn't in extreme pain this time, however she can only relate her last experience to those machines - and her memory of them are directly related to the acute pain she was in at the time.


I tried so hard to comfort and calm her down. It was successful - I pulled her out of her stroller and we just sang and began to make silly faces at one another. I asked if she wanted to send daddy some pictures and she was excited to do so. She loves sending pics/videos to people (kids and technology these days! lol).

Soon after she was more comfortable with the room, our nurses joined us once again and asked me a couple followup questions. They asked how long I could anticipate Annabelle to cooperate for scans. I had conflicting feelings, it could be good or bad - I couldn't tell. They then said that we would have to undress her 100% and put on a gown, that's when I changed my answer. "If you're going to have me strip her naked and put on that feared hospital gown, I guarantee we've just lost all hope for an easy series of scans! Im sorry, is there a Plan B?" There was -I changed Annabelle and we took a stroll to the ER where they have machines that operate much faster and more efficient. Thank the heavens for those brilliant nurses!!!

Annabelle did very well. The first 15min of pictures, I managed to manipulate my limbs to resemble an octopus to achieve the desires body positioning of Belle and keep her still. She did good. For every picture, I made sure to remind Annabelle to smile for the camera :)

Towards the end, we transitioned the xrays to lying down on the table - that's where things turned for the worst and it was a battle to the end to gain everything we needed. All in all, I would say things did go very well and with as little amount of trauma as we could. We left the hospital several hours later and I was never so happy to be home. Neither was Annabelle - she spent the rest of the weekend snoozing like a baby.

Saturday evening we enjoyed a night out at the Flying Squirrels Baseball Game with my company. The seats were great, the weather was beyond amazing and the girls were so very good. They enjoyed every minute of the game, mostly the fireworks. Annabelle slept most the day Saturday and I was so nervous she wouldn't make the game, but when I woke her at 5:30pm, she woke up happy, seemingly refreshed and we are so happy we made it. The girls deserved a night out and I enjoyed the cold beer and socialization with my little family, and my work family <3