At about 9:30 in the morning we were escorted to the basement of the hospital to begin Jonathan's endoscopy. We were taken to a smaller room with a bed and the necessary equipment. When everything was ready Stacey laid him down on the bed. The anesthesiologist put the mini-sized mask over his mouth and after three big breaths in between crying he was sound asleep. We waited for about 45 minutes until Doctor Yasdi came to the waiting room to tell us that everything looked fine. He didn't find anything abnormal, too small, or inflamed in his esophagus, stomach, or top of his small intestine. Good news. They took a biopsy with the scope, more blood for lab work, and changed out the two old IVs with new ones in his hand and foot. The best part about that is he no longer has a huge bandage on his head.
We were brought to the anesthesia recovery room were we found Jonathan already awake and in the nurse's arms. He bounced right back from the anesthesia - unlike a girl around Julia's age that took hours (she's also staying in our area) to stop screaming. Since he hadn't eaten for over 12 hours all he wanted was Stacey. She nursed him back to "mental health" and after 45 minutes in the recovery room we were escorted back to our room. Shortly after returning to our room Doctor Yasdi came in to tell us that the labs had been completed and that Jonathan's liver counts were all basically back to normal. Whatever Jonathan had caught was probably gone - a long 10 days after he initially couldn't keep anything down. The doc said this case is looking more and more like a healthy kid with a poor appetite. We only have one more test tomorrow that would cause him to believe otherwise.
During the endoscopy they had to remove his NJ tube. This time both Stacey and I both declined to be with him when they put the new NG tube down his nose and into his stomach. Since things are working themselves out (and because of the night vomiting), Doctor Yasdi switched him to normal, everyday Enfamil formula and changed his eating schedule. We need to start testing how he will do with a dose of food similar to eating and similar to how we will feed him when we go home. At 3 p.m. we gave him four ounces over the course of an hour through his tube. We took a three hour break and are feeding him another four ounces right now while I type this post. This time he has been asleep the entire time. The only other difference from the continual feeding at night and this approach is that he was given an antacid at 3 p.m. and I'm going to keep him upright in the backpack (this part is my idea). I don't know about you, but even I wouldn't tolerate drinking something while I was lying face down on my stomach. The night vomiting could be as simple as that. I figure when we go home were not going to be feeding him while he's sleeping anyway.
Tomorrow is the last test - stomach emptying. We'll see how this goes. Maybe everything we've seen in the hospital was just a result of his sickness. Maybe he's really just a normal kid with too much "important work stuff to do" and can't be bothered to stop and eat. If so, we'll have the outpatient procedure done on Friday and be home for the weekend. Enjoy the pictures...
