Surgery Visit

Hello Ava friends! Things have been going pretty good for us. Ava’s been loving school and is anxious each day to go. Her little mind is a sponge that soaks everything up. It’s fun to watch her grow, learn and explore. She got her school pictures taken last week. It was my chance to take a few at home before she went to school. She’s growing so much! It won’t be long and she will be as tall as me!

She’s been complaining that her abdomen hurts her around her belly button area for about a week. I’ve been giving her extra reflux medicines as it seem to go away after she takes the medicine. I never want to just let things be and not know especially with Ava so I called and talked to our AMAZING surgery, nurse practitioner. He was happy to see Ava and help us get to the bottom of this. So this morning we headed up to Iowa City for the appointment. She was weighed, measured, temperature taken and blood pressure checked… all good.

We then went to get a few x rays of her chest. She’s always so sweet about it and never minds at all.

So her NP is thinking the same thing I was, that it may be reflux so he increased her Prevacid. We are going to give that about a month and are hoping this will help. If not we will be looking into a upper gastrointestinal (UGI) endoscopy.

It is a procedure that allows your doctor to look at the interior lining of your esophagus, your stomach, and the first part of your small intestine (duodenum) through a thin, flexible viewing instrument called an endoscope. The tip of the endoscope is inserted through your mouth and then gently moved down your throat into the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum (upper gastrointestinal tract).

I hope we don’t have to go this far so please pray for Ava. She will have to be put under for the test. I’m really praying that the medicines will help her and we can avoid this procedure.

As always thanks for checking on Ava. We love that you still care and continue to pray for her!

~Terri