PH probe & my little Houdini

The word probe always conjures images of aliens with mind sucking probes and this probe didn't suck his mind, but it did go down his nose and record the level of acid in his esophagus for 24 hours. Our ped had said we could do the same for Special K when she was an infant to see whether to treat her reflux, but we refused on the grounds it was too invasive. Sadly, for little T, it was just another procedure and a minor annoyance at that.

He had an NG feeding tube down his nose and throat for months, but it was replaced by a feeding tube in his stomach a couple months ago. So yesterday at first he seemed perplexed that a tube was placed down his throat again. Then he remembered to be annoyed, but his protest was loud, but half-hearted. He yelled, but no flood of tears. Though of course he tried to remove it.

In an attempt to prevent little tube ripper from removing the probe, we put a splint over his arm. If he can't bend his arm at the elbow, he can't reach his face to remove the tube. He tried to remove the splint. He managed to remove the splint despite the fact that his right arm couldn't bend at the elbow and his left arm doesn't work. First he slipped it off using his legs. So we fastened the splint with a pacifier clip. He figured out how to wiggle free of the pacifier clip. We moved the clip to his back. Then we used tape and the clip. This arms race continued day and night throughout the 24 hours until finally the ph probe was removed this morning.

I'm sad we had to put in a mic-key feeding tube, but this little battle with the ph probe certainly shows we did the right thing. There's no way a feeding tube down his nose would last the night with his new found dexterity. It also shows that whatever gross motor delays our little boy has, he has adaptive problem solving skills i.e. he's wily like Bart Simpson.

I'm not sure if the ph probe will show much either, because he had a good day with the probe. He only throw up once and it was a minor incidence. Still I guess that's good, because perhaps part of his extreme lack of appetite is too much Prilosec. We'll see what the doctors say. In any case, I'm proud of my little Houdini.

Also my kids love to prove me wrong. I've been telling his therapists that I'm worried because Little T can't eat solids and that Little T doesn't say any consonants and he's started saying dah and bah and kah. He's also started eating solid foods without immediately throwing up afterwards. Go Little T