Whose Opinion should I take....Went to the ER lastnight

[BTS1022]

Im so confused. So I got tired of seeing and hearing my sweet Conner in so much pain. My doctor refused a referal to a Pediatric GI specialist, and refused to switch from Zantac to a PPI. My doctor pretty much said the reasons behind my childs behavior is due to over feeding....I was not happy to say the least. So in an outrage I packed a diaper bag, made some bottles and flew my hiney to the closest ER with Conner. I walked in and told them everything that Conner was doing from day one and what we were going through, and that I was not going to leave that hospital until someone told me what was wrong with my baby.  I knew my son had reflux, but I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything specific causing it, like Heidel Hernia, or premature esophogus.

So Triage see's us, does there annoying pesky thing. Then they take me straight to a room in the ER. I see 2 doctors, one is a Student(BLAH) and one is a seasoned ER physician. They asked me the normal questions about Conner, his eating habits, his history from day one.....since he isnt very old lol. I told them everything. That Conner from day one has had colic symptoms that never decreased with formula changes, that he coughs often with no other cold symptoms, he gags, he regergitates, and he spits up , sometimes it's a teaspoon of spitup other times its projectile vomiting his whole bottle.

So the hospital took us back, did his vitals and took X-rays. Then we waitied for what seemed like an eternity. Finally the female student came running in all out of breath. I of course started wondering what was wrong...maybe she got the wrong room? Anywho, she sat down and told me they found an Abnormality(sp) withen Conners intestines.....an Ileus..basically a twisted intestine.

She comensed to telling me that I was being transfered to DMC Childrens hospital and that a Pediatric GI and a Pediatric surgeon would talk to me. She also said we needed to make arrangements to stay at the Ronald Mcdonald house...that my baby will be in the hospital for a very long time. She said he will have a feeding tube inserted for god knows how long, and that they will have to work very hard surgically to untwist his intestines. So I of course am relieved to know that something was *wrong* and I wasn't just being some cazy lunatic mother, but I was also freaked out about the results and prognosis. I immediatley called my husband, he got a babysitter for the other boys and rushed in.

About 20 min later the doctor comes back stating that EMS will be transporting my son to Childrens hospital. He will be taken straight to the Trauma unit at Childrens, and that whoever wanted to ride with Conner, had to sit upfront and not in the back with him....making it sound as if my son could die at any moment, so my husband opted to go with the EMS, because if something were to happen to Conner on the way there....the EMS would need their own hospital rooms aswell.

So....We get to Childrens after a 2 hour drive (bad weather). They give us a room (turtle 7) and a Pediatric ER doctor comes in and of course gets Conners *Brief* history of everything....same speal at the other hospital.  The doctor is calm and taking his time, meanwhile I tell him he needs to hurry up and fix my child instead of lollygaging around the hospital...I was p i s s e d.  So he took the history down, sent us to X-ray...did that AGAIN!....and sent us to ultrasound which the other hospital didnt do. We once again sat and waited for what seemed an eternity. I was thinking the worse, and hubby was comforting me as much as he could.

The doc comes in and sits down. He says the unbelievable....Every test they did came out 100% normal, no sign of an Ileus at all. And that the pain and issues Conner is having is indeed his Acid Reflux. So he upped the Zantac (which isnt working) to 0.7 ML's twice a day, and gave me a number to follow up with a Pediatric GI, and is going to prescribe me a PPI! I begged my family doc for a PPI and he refused. So Prevacid it is, but I of course need to wait a few days.

Who do I believe in this situation? Each hospital gave me  2 different explanations. Im scared my son Might still have an Ileus, but maybe he doesnt. Im confused, and I dont know what I should do.

Any Advice would be helpful.

Also has anyone used Enfamil A.R.? If so how did it work for your baby, and did you have any good outcomes/bad outcomes?

[k24stardust]

Hi, My son was on zantac, and similac Alimentum.. after trying 6 kinds.. it worked well for him but he still had the reflux, but the formula worked much better. Good luck with everything that is a crazy ordeal! If they did x rays and ultrasound you are probably safe.

[GRose]

This post if from Nov.... I dont think BTS comes on MH anymore.

[LosingMyMindInGA]

I would say if you are not 100% comfortable with the latest diagnoses (reflux) that you get this ped. GI to run more tests or find another one to give a third opinion.  

I used enfamil a.r. with my last child (wasn't available with my first 3) all of my kids had reflux...my oldest had it the worst...she was diangosed with gerd.  Well lets just suffice it to say that i took my youngest off the zantac about 3-4 months earlier than i did my other 3.  He got hiccups less often than they did, he spit up less, he wasn't nearly as gassy....

[Nana2thestars]

My granddaughters had reflux pretty bad.  Their Pediatric GI did prescribe Prevacid, but what really helped was the formula Nutramagin and they slept on a Tucker Wedge Sling my son-in-law found on line.

[KM604]

I don't know anything really on this situation, but I do know that u/s are supposed to be better than x-rays - so maybe that's why they were able to rule it out.  This may or may not have anything to do with it, but I was watching Oprah with Christina Applegate when she was talking about getting a mammogram to check for breast cancer - and how an u/s is also necessary since sometimes the x-ray can't see behind certain masses.  Plus, if they are a children's hospital I would think they would have more experience with this stuff.  I know when I went to the ER for my m/c, they couldn't tell me if I was m/c'ing, having an ectopic or if it was just early pregnancy (and I was bleeding and cramping like crazy).  They then just told me to follow up with my doctor.  So sometimes the ER people don't give you a good answer as to what is wrong and send you somewhere else where you should be able to get better answers.  Maybe follow up with the Pediatric GI and see what they have to say about it all - bring up the 2 different answers you were given.

[pinkbelle]

my daughter is on prevacid and it works great!! She was on Zantac and that did nothing for her.. I also had her on enfamil ar but shes lactose intolerant so that just made it worse she is now on good start soy and she gets bottles thickened with cereal... If your son has acid reflux they should have already told you to thicken feedings.. I know the stress of having to go through this.. my daughter is now 5 months old and she has been on prevacid for 2 months and it is much  better than zantac.

[foreverpoppy9]

I can't give a lot of light on your situation but from being a nurse my suspicion is that when they saw the x-ray it looked like it could be an illeus and therefore the first hospital sent you to the 2nd hospital as it probably was a better pediatric facility that deals mroe with these types of situations. THe second hospital also did an x-ray b/c they probably didn't have the original x-rays to look at or if they were electronically sent to the hospital they may not have received them yet and didn't want to wait. My thinking is that the 2nd hospital took the x-rays again and thought they might have seen an illeus but weren't 100% sure so they did an u/s for better visualization. With an U/S you can move around and see wether it truly is an illeus or if it was just a shadow that looked like it.
Again this is just my intuition and things might very well be different.

I wish you, your baby & your family all the best! take care