Newsletter May 1, 2008

          It’s that time again and of course we are full of new adventures and stories.  I’m sure most of you have heard what’s been going on with Adi lately, but some of you have not and we also have some new updates.  Here is the condensed version.  Around the middle of March Adi started getting fussier than she ever had before and she also started vomiting about every time she would eat.  She went from eating about 3 ounces a feeding to sometimes only ½ an ounce.  We were pretty concerned and started going to see the pediatrician and she had us try some hypoallergenic formulas and then she modified Anna’s diet again and nothing was working.  Adi was losing weight and just didn’t want to eat very much.  Finally one day Adi didn’t really eat anything and she was lethargic and seemed dehydrated.  Anna called the pediatrician again and she told us to go to the emergency entrance of Primary Children’s Hospital.  They admitted Adi because she was dehydrated and they wanted to do an upper GI test to see why she was vomiting so much. They did the test the next day and they found that Adi had a hiatal hernia.  About half of her stomach was pulled up through her diaphragm.  Because of the severity of the hernia, she had to have surgery to fix it.  She went in for surgery the next day.  The surgery was successful and the next couple days were pretty challenging because she wasn’t allowed to eat anything.  She did really well though and was a good little girl.  When she was finally allowed to eat again, she wouldn’t eat very much still so they did another upper GI test and found out that the esophagus was being constricted with the stomach wrap they did in the surgery so the milk she was eating wasn’t able to pass into her stomach.  That is when they put the first feeding tube in her.  She had that for a few days and then she pulled it out.  She wasn’t gaining weight yet so they had to put another tube in and they kept us at the hospital so they could make sure she was gaining weight.  It was 16 days before Adi was finally discharged from the hospital.  We were very excited to finally be home.  She had done so well during her last couple days in the hospital and we thought she would do even better coming home.  But that was not the case.  She got pretty fussy again and she didn’t want to eat very much.  She had a lot of gas pains at night and that kept her from sleeping very well for a week or so.  She pulled out her second feeding tube last week and we thought she would have to get another one put in because she still wasn’t eating enough to gain much weight.  She had gained a little weight though so they didn’t put a tube in just yet.  She had an appointment with the surgeon a couple days ago and he said we could start her on puree foods again and that she looked good.  We are hoping that this helps her gain more weight quickly.  It has been challenging at times but we have had a love of help and support and more than anything, we have been blessed by all of your prayers.  Adi is such a sweet little girl and we are privileged to have her in our family.  Since the surgery, she has been more loose and relaxed than ever before so we are very optimistic that as she continues to recover she will gain more use of all her muscles.  Well, I feel like I have gone on and on so I’m going to wrap it up.  Not much else has been happening.  We are just totally consumed with getting Adi healthy and happy.  We love all of you and thank you again for your prayers and love and support.