This last week Samantha had her endoscopy and an adenoidectomy. I was anxious but tried desperately not to show it. And we made it through fine.

Samantha woke at 3:45 a.m. the day of because she was anxious and excited. She was ready to get it over with. We left after 5 and headed to CHOMP before the sun was up.

Samantha was very relaxed pre-op and met all her doctors and nurses. She was excited that she got to take her lovey, Baby Sister, with her in the operating room. And I was so pleased that the nurses and doctors would accommodate that--I'm sure it helped her feel calm.

The endoscopy took only 15 minutes and the pediatric gastroenterologist was pleasantly surprised. Despite all of Samantha's GERD issues, her esophagus and stomach looked perfect. There was a little redness near the opening to the intestines at the bottom of the stomach. He took a biopsy of that part of her stomach to check for gastritis and celiac disease. Anatomically, however, she was perfect.

About 25 minutes later the ENT came out to talk about how the adenoidectomy had gone. He was very surprised by what he found. Behind Samantha's adenoids there was a pocket of bacteria that was not visible when he looked up her nose with a camera previously. The ENT asked if she'd been having a goopy nose, to which my response was "No. Her nose hasn't been running." Typically people don't have pockets like she did, but the adenoidectomy took care of it. He did have to suction out the bacteria and do a saline rinse three times each, so she was a little more banged up than expected.

The recovery was a little rough. The gas and oxygen cause a dry throat along with both procedures, so there is a lot of crying and hacking/coughing. CHOMP nurses were great. They had me get in bed next to Samantha to calm her down and soothe her. I rubbed her back and legs, kept her from pulling out the catheter in her hand, and fed her ice. I don't know exactly how long I was in the bed next to her (not very comfortable), but she slept a bit and ready to get back home.


Both doctors are hoping that these procedures will help eliminate her post-nasal drip problems and thereby not activate the acid receptors in the esophagus/stomach. Samantha wants to know if she can finally stop Prevacid for good--I sure hope so. We meet with both doctors in a month to see how things have improved.

I'm hoping that the good review of the stomach means that we can totally bypass the PH probe, which would require a probe into her lungs for 24-hours to measure the reflux/acid. That wouldn't be fun.

For now she's still recovering. The sore throat has improved and she's starting to come back to her former self. She'll be ready for school come Monday.