Joshua's Reflux

Well, I thought I'd give an update on my Joshie (Dave hates when I call him that, by the way. He thinks it's too feminine. He would rather call him "Shua"...as in, the end of his name...yeah, I don't know how it came about either.). First off, I never got to tell my fun story about the last straw I had with his and Sam's pediatrician. So, the day I had Joshua's follow-up appointment, I was running extremely behind and rushed to get both me and the boys out the door and by the time I was driving into Prescott it was 3:45 on the dot - the time of my appointment. Well, the dr. office is only like 2 minutes from the spot I was at, so I decided to be nice and call them to let them know I was still on my way. Well, when I did, they told me there was no way they'd see me and that I'd have to reschedule...even though I was literally only going to be 2 minutes late!! I apologized and told her I was running behind, could they please give me a break because I drove an hour and a half JUST for this appointment...with two screaming kids (yeah...Joshua HATES being in the car), and Dr. Green didn't even care. He had his rounds to do at the hospital and didn't want to wait. He knows my story and that I live out of town, and he didn't even care. So after arguing with her about it, I said, "Fine, I'll just turn back around and drive an hour and a half home!" and then I hung up. And that's exactly what I did...after I pulled over and nursed Joshua, of course. I was so incredibly LIVID. That was the biggest wasted 3 hours of my life. And I had to listen to two upset, mad kids the whole way. I don't blame them for crying the whole time.

Anyway, I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that a dr. would care about his patients that little. That was the last straw for me and it totally wiped out my wishy-washiness of switching doctors. I decided then that, even if he did call back and asked me to reschedule (which he never did!!), I wouldn't. I refuse to ever take my kids there again.

So, after listening to people's opinions, we switched to Dr. Sipes. I took Josh to her and I absolutely LOVE her! She was so good with him and you could tell she really cared. I also didn't feel stupid for asking questions or trying to get more information about things, unlike Dr. Green, who would always make me feel like an idiot for wanting to know things. I'm sorry I want to know what's going on with my child...

Anyway, she was great and her office was nice and clean and bright (SO unlike Dr. Green's) and her staff is great. So about the medicine...he was on Zantac about a week and a half and it helped a LITTLE bit. It helped so he wasn't throwing and spitting up all the time, but that's all it helped. His food would still come up, just not all the way (he'd swallow it) and he would still hiccup and burp all the time, still couldn't eat well, etc. So Dr. Sipes put him on Prevacid, which I have heard works better most of the time anyway. This has started to work, but unfortunately it's giving him REALLY bad diarrhea! I looked it up and it is a side effect...but only in 3% of people!! Of course, he has to be in that 3%... And it's not something I just want to deal with because he's miserable because of it and has constant diaper rash. So unfortunately, I have to take him off of it.

So I don't know what we will do. I'm tired of it though, and I'm sure he is too. I wish we could find something that worked. I might just have to put him back on the Zantac, because a little help is better than none at all. He also has a referral in to see a G.I. specialist at Phoenix Children's, but that probably won't be for a while since the wait is so long. I guess I'll keep you updated...