W catch up!

And so we come to W's grand update!

It's all been rather busy round here so I haven't had a chance to update after I said I would on FaceBook - but now here it is!

I came home from my sister's wedding to W having a few problems with his skin and so have spent time picking out cleansers to just help keep this increasing oil under control and showing him how to clean his face carefully. Phad problems with his skin in his teenage years and although I didn’t really and W takes after me generally with dry skin and sensitivity to soaps, he’s clearly changing and if you can control it before there’s a problem his teens should be much easier on that front.

What a contrast – toilet training T and skin care for W!!!

W couldn’t possibly let N have all the limelight with injuries and so needled T to the point of total frustration who threw the closest thing to hand – some car track with really sharp metal points where they join. These hit W in the top of the foot and punctured the blood vessel there. And so, only the day after N’s accident I was dealing with more blood, again on the carpet and tiles! W, naturally, had to hop in circles to show me how sore it was so we had nice circles of blood on the floor.

While I’m putting pressure on W’s foot and trying to mop up a little of the blood T decides he needs the toilet – and as typical for kids just toilet training, suddenly loses control – and adds urine to the blood on the tiles! Just in case Mummy hasn’t enough to do!!

So the kids were successfully banned from any more bloody incidents for the next few weeks!!!

W’s doing well in most areas at the moment but has decided to continue the family reflux saga. He’s complained of problems for the past year, which I’ve sort of pushed to the background, dealing with T etc. I shouldn’t have done that because now he’s in a bit of a mess.

He’s back on medication, still having problems, occasionally having some blood come up from oesophageal irritation – and just to add to the fun his mystery cardiac thing which we never really got to the bottom of last year – seems to be linked with his reflux episodes. For those who are medically minded it seems to be irritating the vagus nerve as it washes around, causing a SVT episode – so the racing heart is actually a response to the slowing heartbeat first off. It’s now causing a tight chest and shortness of breath, like an asthma attack. So, with a big sigh and a heavy heart, he got referred to the surgeon the younger two have seen and had an initial appointment on the 18^th of August.

We’re not necessarily anticipating surgery, just looking at an endoscopic examination to see what’s going on in there so we have more info to decide where to from here. It may be that medication will control it – but I’m not holding my breath as the younger two had damage despite meds, meds have never fully controlled it for W, and high doses over long periods also carry risks – and a standard type dose isn’t working for him at this stage. Of course, even if meds control damage but don’t stop the cardiac things then they will need further investigation – and if it is purely reflux then that’s a good reason in their own right for further steps to be taken.

After 11 years of reflux and all it’s miseries I am heartily sick of it and wish it’d just go away and leave me and my kids alone!!!

But I am constantly proud and amazed at the wonderful young man W is growing into – although his favourite game at the moment is brother baiting – but he’s learning that new and improved T fights back! I’ve had to put T in time out for punching W lately! W will happily go the extra mile for T on a regular basis – including helping with toilet training and even wiping…how many almost teenaged boys can you say that about?!

Addition to all of this - the surgeon seemed to think with W's history and the length it's all been going on for that he will need a nissen fundoplication just like the other two.

He's booked W in for an oesophagoscopy under general anaesthetic on the 10th of September to take a look and to take biopsies, checking for the very remote possibility that allergic oesophagitis instead of reflux oesophagitis - apparently about 20 % of supposed reflux cases are actually allergic in origin and so he needs to check this instead of going straight to surgery.

It's a quick procedure - T did it a bit before he turned 3 and I blogged about it then - and I'm not too concerned about that part of it.

W brought up fresh bright blood in his reflux this morning, an effortless 'spill' so the bleeding is clearly not from vomiting straining something but from reflux burning and damaging his oesophagus lining.4-5 times in as many weeks - not good! The big concern with this is that over time that burn can cause changes on a cellular level in the oesophagus which can lead to cancer later on. In the case of children with long standing reflux this cancer risk could come home to roost in their 30's.

The guess with T's persistently low iron levels was that he would have been bleeding due to his reflux - it was ulcerated inside after all, but we never saw it. W says when he brings up blood he often feels like something's being stripped off with it and that it really stings. It's rare to have pre-cancerous cell changes in a child's oeophagus but it does happen and if that's the case with W then the biopsies will tell us that too. He has been refluxing for 11 years now so anything is possible.

This morning was the first time P saw the blood and realised how bad this actually is for W - all a bit sobering.

So wish us luck for the 10th of Sept when he goes in for his scope. Only 16 days to go!