I saw an acquaintance several weeks ago who said, “You haven’t been posting in your blog!” I know, I know. I think I am really not meant to be a “blogger”. I do like to keep people informed, but blogging just doesn’t come very naturally to me. By the end of the day, when I would have time to write a post, I’m just too worn out.
However, today was important enough to push through the worn-outness and just do it.
Today we traveled 3 hours away to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. We are doing everything we can to try and figure out why Jonah doesn’t eat. Our first thought was to rule out any gut issues or allergens.
Jonah at one of our gas station stops on the way to LR.
Jonah had an ultrasound to look for any blockages or anything else that might be causing him pain. We were completely blown away by how well he did. We thought we were going to have to hold him down, but he tolerated it so well. He was a little unsure at first when we had him lay on the bed, and especially when he saw the weird stuff they were going to put on his stomach. But he relaxed and laid very still while daddy held his hand and I stayed down at his feet. After the tech was done with his stomach, she needed to go through his back, as well. He’s not super comfortable laying on his stomach, but with some encouragement he flipped over and watched his insides up on the screen. I’d say the whole thing took 15-20 minutes, and he was just perfect the whole time. The worst part was after the ultrasound when the tech went to make sure the doctor didn’t need any more images, and Jonah no longer wanted to stay in the room. We had to corral him a little bit, but that’s nothing we’re not used to. 
Next, we got to go wait in another waiting room for Jonah’s endoscopy. The endoscopy was to make sure his stomach looked okay, and to take a biopsy to check for allergens (which would include Celiac’s).
Waiting room fun. (photo by Aaron)
Jonah does waiting pretty well when there’s a window to look out. When we went back to the room, we were informed about the procedure. Every single person who was going to be a part of the procedure came in to talk to us one at a time, to ask if we had any questions, etc. This really put us at ease (as much as possible, anyway). I have to say that everyone we interacted with was really great and genuinely seemed to care. One very southern nurse hilariously kept calling Jonah a “precious bundle of joy” and other similar things.
Most of our best pictures came from our wait in this room:
Jonah’s yellow “pajamas” (photo by Aaron).
Saying “cheese”!
A nice moment between Jonah and me. (photo by Aaron)
Jonah and daddy
While we were in this room, Jonah got a needle-less shot (I still don’t understand what that means) of some “goofy juice”, which sedated him just enough to relax and not mind when we were separated from him. In those last couple of pictures, Jonah had already gotten the shot and was starting to relax.
When it was time for him to go back, we each got to give Jonah a kiss, but he was really more interested in moving Piglet back and forth between the bars of the bed. I bet it looked pretty silly to him at that point. Jonah got Piglet from his Uncle Kris when he was just a couple months old. Several of the nurses commented on how “well-loved” Piglet looked. I was grateful that they let Piglet go back for the procedure with Jonah, since it is so familiar to him.
The most beautiful husband in all the land.
I want to take a second to be cheesy and thank my husband for being so awesome today. We always say that when hard stuff like this happens, one of us is freaking out, so the other just HAS to be the strong one. I’m sure that’s how it is for most couples. Today, Aaron was the strong one. When we got back to the waiting room after Jonah went back for his procedure, I got really overwhelmed and emotional and couldn’t help but cry. Luckily, I was able to calm myself fairly quickly, but he was strong then and all day long, because he knew I was really worried about how things would go. He is pretty great.
We were able to go back and see Jonah just before he started waking up. This was probably the worst part of the whole thing. He seemed really confused when he woke up and REALLY wanted all the wires and stuff off of him. He was really fussy until we left and had been driving for a bit, but eventually calmed down. In fact, during our 3-hour car ride back home, he went from fussing to happy and making all sorts of vocalizations in the back seat. We were really surprised he didn’t sleep any on the way home. We got to go have dinner with grandma and grandpa before we finally went home. During dinner, he was fantastic. He was already back to his goofy old self.
What we found out so far is that he does have some irritation on his stomach called Gastritis. The doctor said that it definitely would have been causing him some pain, and that this could be part of what is keeping him from eating, but probably not all of it. There are probably some sensory issues keeping him from eating. We won’t know about the results of the biopsy (allergens, etc.) for a couple of weeks. She gave us a RX for the Gastritis, but getting him to take the melt-in-his-mouth pill is going to be a whole other battle…
The Ozarks.
On the way home I got this penny pressed at a gas station. I hadn’t done one of these penny things in a long time, and kind of just wanted something to commemorate the trip, as odd as that might sound. It was a really big day for Jonah, and for all of us. He did amazingly well, and continues to show us how strong and brave he is. We are more proud of him than I can even explain.
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