Alrighty then,

I suppose I should jump right into it huh? Man, a lot has happened. I really do need to post more often! Let's see.... a few weekends ago, we all went out to La Quinta (Palm Springs area) to visit Kelly's Grandparents. On Saturday night I was taking Abby out of her high chair after dinner and her J Tube Extension, which is the plastic tube we hook up to that button on her tummy, got caught on something on the high chair. The button has a little plastic donut hole that the J Tube Extension snaps into, and that part ripped out of the button. Abby wasn't hurt, but everything from her tummy was dripping out of her at a very fast pace. So WHAT NOW??!!!!

We actually knew this day would come. When Abby had the J Tube put in, we were told that we would leave it in as long as possible, which meant we would leave it in until it either broke or got clogged. When that day comes we would slowly pull the button and the J Tube out of her tummy and then insert a regular G Tube temporarily. So the doc ordered us the spare G Tube and that was that.

Well, that day was upon us, but there was one problem. The spare G Tube was at our house and we were 2 hours away in the desert. Not to worry! It had been quite a while since my little bride got out of the house and I didn't want the weekend to end just because of this. So I drove home and back that night and we popped the G Tube in and called the doc for the next move.

On Tuesday of the following week, they got Abby in to get another J Tube placed. This has to be done endoscopically which means they use a scope that has a camera on it to see where they're going. The J Tube was a lot longer than I thought it would be. When Kelly pulled it out of Abby's tummy, it just kept coming, like spaghetti! No joke. The sucker was like 10 inches long. Nuts. Anyway, since it's kind of a big deal to put this J Tube in, we had to do the whole pre operation thing....get an IV put in, wait forever and then go into the OR. And while we're in the OR and the nurses are getting everything ready, I notice there's no anesthesiologist so I ask the nurses what the deal was. "Oh yeah" they say, "we're just going to put her under a little bit, so she's in a bit of a twilight state. But we're not going to knock her out completely so we don't need an anesthesiologist." Hmmmmmm....I know what I was thinking and I'm sure Kelly was thinking the same thing, which was, "Yeah right! You think Lil Miss Crazy is going to sit still with a just a wimpy dose of twilight juice? You gotta be joking!"
Sure enough...the juice wasn't enough. They couldn't keep her still. We were told we'd have to come back the following day. Fan Stinkin' Tastic! Yabba Dabba Pooh. So back we went on Wednesday, did the pre op thing again, but this time everything went well. They knocked her out her out before the IV went in which was great because she hates that so much. The J Tube was placed with no problem and we also found out some additional news.

Before I get into that news, let me offer a a quick refresher course. Abby would always throw up her formula, even in the NICU. We could never give her a lot at one time like other baby's with G Tubes because it would come right back up. This is why she was having so much trouble gaining weight. The J Tube is the short term fix to this problem because it takes the formula past the stomach and into her small intestine where it doesn't have the opportunity to be thrown up. Okay... so now, here's what the GI Doc found...

The doc took some time after placing the J Tube and looked around her stomach area a bit and noticed that something was missing. A sphincter. Yeah... you heard me...a A SPHINCTER. Apparently, you and I have a sphincter at the bottom of our esophagus right before our stomach. This sphincter is what keeps our food from coming up when we gag. It only opens up when our body absolutely needs to get something out of our stomach and we put a lot of force on it. Well.... our little Abby is fresh out of that sphincter. So what now? Well, there is a surgery we can do that will basically jerry-rig a sphincter called a Fundoplication, AKA, a FUNDO. But we're not very excited about this because all of our research on the surgery was coming up pretty negative. Google that one and you'll see what we're talking about.

So the plan for now is to keep putting a new J Tube back in and not go back to the G Tube after all. We're only going to hook her up to the pump at night now with some new super SUPER dooper strong formula and feed her normally through the day. She doesn't eat much now on her own but without being fed from her pump during the day, she should get a bit more hungry. Also, Abby is getting close to walking and will most likely be walking on her own in the next 3 to 6 months. The more vertical she is, the better she will digest her food.

Speaking of walking, some pics on the slide show below (ooops, there goes the surprise) show Abby using a walking contraption. She doesn't use this all the time. This is just at therapy and she loves it because she is "walking" without the help of any of us. And our Little Miss Magic is all about doing it on her own.

And then there's Eddie. He is the coolest little guy ever. I love him so much and am so thankful for his trooper attitude. He cruises with momma and Abby to all her appointments and is really good about everything. He's usually in a great mood and yes, he still loves his sister! He is starting to crawl now and is loving his new skill. Kelly thinks he's going to be a lefty like his daddy but I'm not so sure. Of course I think that would be great to have another south paw around the house, but I'm not getting my hopes up. We shall see.

Phew! That was a long one. But it was worth the wait, right? If I'm still in your dog house, watch the video. That should get me at least a FEW brownie points!

Good Night Abby Town. Sleep tight.

Love,
Daddy, Momma, Eddie and Abby