Don't Forget the Suction Machine!

Macayla visited the dentist yesterday for a routine cleaning and check up. They have to sedate her to work on her. She got the max dose of meds, and she never fell asleep during the appointment. She has quite a tolerance! She has already lost a couple of teeth including a front tooth and the other front tooth was pulled because it was loose. Unfortunately, the sedation affected her all day which was different from last time. The last dentist visit we sedated, but she was alert and active afterwards, but not this time. We fed her after the visit, and then headed to the GI doctor to deal with the stomach problems. When we pulled into the parking lot, Macayla threw up a little bit. She had trouble clearing for a second and to make things worse, we forgot the suction machine. Not good. She cleared, started breathing and we went in. While inside, we moved her out of her chair to change her shirt, I think, but moving her brought on major vomiting and she could not clear. It was stressful and when I asked for a suction bulb or suction machine, there wasn’t one to be found. They had to go to the 2nd floor of the office building and get a crash cart. Thankfully, Macayla was able to clear and started breathing. Once we got the crash cart, we suctioned her and she did fine. We were able to get some food in her later in the day, but at a slower rate than normal. She was groggy for the rest of the day and she slept all night without moving. I think we will remember to bring the suction machine from now on.
The GI doctor wants to increase her protein pump inhibitor and we have changed the formula we use to feed her. If we don’t see an improvement in her stomach by Friday, then we will test her stool for signs of infection that could cause irritation in her esophagus or stomach. What ever is causing it she has irritation that is oozing blood into her stomach and we hope these steps will bring healing. We had an X-ray of her lower abdomen done and we are waiting to hear if it showed any impaction or problems. She has gotten to the point that it hurts when we feed her. So we really want healing as fast as possible. This is new territory for us and we are trying to learn how to help her. The doctor is not in a hurry to scope Macayla which is good because it involves general anesthesia and we are not ready to take that risk. If none of these options help, then we will revisit what can be done and that may include procedures that are not fun, but we’ll see.