Long Update

I've been meaning to post a very long update but things have been beyond hectic here. It seems like everytime I sit down to write this all down, something comes up. I have been fighting a nasty kidney/bladder infection and feeling under the weather for over a week. Then on Monday, Adam and I started the Insanity workout program - its 'insanely' hard (there's really no other word!) and so my extra hour of me-time is now spent grunting and sweating. It feels good to be pushing myself though - i've really neglected to take time out to do things for myself since Addison has gotten sick. I just had my hair done for the first time in a salon since she was born 8 months ago. I don't remember the last time I wore nail polish.... so the point is, its good to be forcing myself to take care of my body.

I'd like to start this backwords and first write about Addison's admission in Columbus before getting into where we are now. So here goes.... if you remember,about a month ago Addison started to refuse feedings and really out of it. She started to lose weight and was down to drinking only 2 or 3 four ounce bottles a day. We saw our pediatrician who ruled out an ear infection and the obvious things. We gave her a couple of days to see if she would get over it, but she didn't and I called Nationwide to see what they wanted me to do. They said Dr.M wanted to admit her in Columbus. We werent thrilled to have to endure an out of town hospitalization  - that meant finding babysitters for the other kids for the weekdays, not seeing my kids and hubby for who knows how long. I drove down and we checked in at 3. They ran her urine and found her to be severely dehydrated. We were admitted to the GI floor of the hospital and they gave her an IV. They did an xray and found she was full of stool so we started a Senna cleanout. The first day and night went well and I was pleased with our care. The second day started off on the wrong foot when I learned that our GI specialist Dr.M would have nothing to do with our care while we were admitted. We met the resident and he immediately rubbed me the wrong way.

Addison lost weight the entire time we were there - even though the doctors 'took over' her feedings since they assumed I just wasnt giving her enough. They could not get her to gain weight, despite feeding her all night and bumping her up to 30/calories per ounce feedings. They did not run any testing, as youll learn in a moment. It was a huge waste of time and finally I told them I was taking her home.

Now, to make a long story short, here is what the resident doctor told me over the six days we were there:
1) Its impossible to throw up from not pooping. Reflux has nothing to do with constipation. He suggested that perhaps im 'exaggerating' her spitup or its purely a coincedence that she only vomits when she's backed up.
2) Her weight is fine. She doesn't have trouble gaining weight at all. His suggestion was that me and her father (200 lbs and 6 foot tall) are just 'little' and its genetic. Oh wait ...except my other two children who are 99th percentile and have always been top of the charts!
3) We put her through unncessary testing. She will 'probably outgrow it by age 3 or 4'. Nothing about Addison's history makes it look like she will grow out of it! This infuriated me -so what if she doesnt-then we put her through a bunch of invasive tests when she is old enough to be traumatized by it? 4 years of laxatives and enemas might not sound like a lot to him but its OUR life-sometimes one more DAY seems too much to bear with it.

Basically, the doctor was a total jerk who couldnt admit he didnt know what was wrong with her. Instead, he made me feel like crap over something I KNOW i'm doing everything in my power to fix. I got her out of there as fast as I could... I guess he called her pediatrician to tell her his 'instructions' and she told me she was kindof offended that he was like 'they just need to feed her more' like none of us had tried that.... ugh. It was awful. Tonight ill post the rest of the update, and where we are now.