Jared has a non-contagious, night-time barfing problem. I have blogged about it in the past, but not recently, and sadly, we have been dealing with it on and off for about three years now. It's super lame, both for him and for the parents that have to sit up with him in the middle of the night and clean up messes (us!).
Basically what happens is Jared will sometimes wake up and throw up several times but then go back to sleep and be just fine the next day. He's been medicated now for two different illnesses (acid reflux and some weird illness called cyclic vomiting syndrome--might be related to "abdominal migraines"), but unfortunately the medications aren't foolproof and we still have episodes here and there. We have also weaned him off medicine several times since we haven't wanted him to be on anything long-term. He'll be fine for months at a time until it all starts up again.
About a month and a half ago we got Jared in to see a pediatric GI specialist, who unfortunately doesn't know what is wrong with him! He said only a few of his symptoms sound like acid reflux, and only a few of his symptoms sound like cyclic vomiting syndrome. He ordered an MRI of the brain for Jared, which we did, and we are glad that it was normal. (Wow, the MRI is another story in itself. Jared had to be sedated, and its effects lasted most of a whole day. The whole ordeal was kind of a big stress--not to mention the fact that we are out LOTS of money for it...Sedation is expensive!) Anyway, I'm not sure what to do now. He had another barf episode last night and poor Alan had to do all the damage control by himself since I wasn't feeling very well last night. Jared is still on medicine for cyclic vomiting syndrome, but it increases his appetite a LOT (it is also prescribed in children to stimulate appetite for weight gain), and I'm worried what will happen to him if he stays on it for a long time.
I'm glad that Jared doesn't have a brain tumor or anything horrible that is making him sick, but it is a big puzzle what to do and this really does interfere with our lives. It makes me nervous to have overnight babysitters for Jared and to go on vacation anywhere (Jared threw up on our Arches trip in September--luckily NOT one of the nights we were camping in a tent!) It's not fun to have to have your child always sleep with a "barf bowl" next to his bed. I guess I'm just hoping he'll grow out of it someday????
3 comments:
Terrible! I'm so sorry this is a part of your normal life, but so thankful that everything else seems well with Jared. Craziness.
I'm done with Rules too. I'll call soon, but not sure when. Next week is so busy that I'm not looking forward to it.
Ashton was diagnosed with abdominal migraines over a year ago. After lots of monitoring, we found that it's induced by stress. The last few months, he started getting the severe headaches a long with the migraines. Its no fun to see your little ones suffer. Hopefully you can find peace.
I've never heard of anything like that! Sorry that you have to deal with it!! I'm glad Jared is otherwise healthy though. What a relief! It sounds like lots and lots of prayers are needed to figure this thing out. It's so frustrating when you have no idea what to do. I hope you are able to figure things out soon, or even better--that he will grow out of it soon!
Post a Comment