Hearing & G.I. Updates

Yesterday was another Aural Rehab Therapy session. Elias was not having anything to do with the BAHA. He was throwing a major tantrum when it was on. We are still trying to decipher why it is he will get that way at times when it is put on. Most of the time he is carefree about wearing it. To call it an intolerance is exaggerating. One thing the therapist brought up was that maybe the settings  needed to be checked. She wants us to set-up an appointment with the audiologist that is now doing the BAHA cases. Specifically to test him in the booth and address that the settings for this are indeed the right ones. I became quite upset over this. They are now suggesting something we brought up multiple times to multiple people and were always dismissed as that not being a potential problem. Now it is? The inconsistency is annoying me to the core. So we are trying to fit that into our already crazy appointment schedule....

We mentioned an issue about a month ago that we were watching with Elias’ feeds. On Tuesday, while his speech therapist was here, he was nearing  the end of his feeding. Elias began to cough and retch. Thankfully, he did not vomit. Something she noticed that we have never given much thought to was how sweaty his was. After a coughing fit we might expect to see him like that. She was asking if anyone had mentioned or checked for something called “dumping.” We discussed a few things about this and we both are beginning to wonder. We are going to bring it up to GI when we see them in a few weeks. One issue that can occur is the food pushing into the intestines too early can cause an insulin surge into the blood stream to compensate. This can have varied effects on blood sugar and nausea, vomiting, and sweats can be indicators. It is something to explore. While we do not have enough evidence in our own right to correlate this, we can think of two occasions that Elias has stopped breathing surrounding events related to possible blood sugar issues. Mainly from lengthy refrains from eat, ie surgery prep. It is a reach, but when you have something like this that has gone unexplained for this long, you grab at anything to follow. Maybe it is nothing, but maybe it is the missing piece. Funny how things can work out sometimes. So in that spirit we are also going to bring it up to the airway doctors. We will keep you posted on what GI/ENT/Pulmonary have to say on this.

In wrapping this update up, Elias continues to attempt the walking. Frequently too! He is stuck on about 4 steps, but we are certain he will get moving very soon. Grandma O and Aunt Kelly are coming for a visit this weekend. So Elias will have an audience to show off for. We hope everyone has a nice safe Labor Day Weekend. We will be thinking and praying for our friends and family that are in hurricane Earl’s path. Stay Safe!