Back to Square 1

Remember this post about Jack's endoscopy, where we weren't sure if we wanted to do it, but was told it was one of the last physical tests to do on Jack.... and then we were relieved to have found an ulcer - caused by acid reflux, which was hopefully "the" reason behind his lack of eating. Well......

We had a follow up visit with the surgeon yesterday. The tissue samples he took from Jack show no abnormalities. Good, right? That also means -- no ulcer. That weird looking thing that the doctor thought was a ulcer, didn't show up on the pathology reports as a ulcer. So there goes that reasoning.

And better yet, if we want, we could do another physical test on Jack to see if he really does have acid reflux. Because if he did have the ulcer, they could assume it was caused by acid reflux. Without an ulcer -- it is unknown if he has acid reflux.

So as the Dr. said, we're really back at square one as to why Jack doesn't want to eat. We discussed several options and theories of what to do. Two options are more physical procedures to do on Jack. But at this point, we're unwilling to try medical procedures just to see if he has acid reflux or just to see if his stomach muscles aren't working properly and therefore aren't totally emptying out his stomach (therefore making him feel full).

So we've decided to do the following:
- keep Jack on the acid reflux medicine for 5 more weeks (8 weeks total)
- reduce the acid reflux dosage down from 2x per day to 1x per day
- try to alter his diet slightly to avoid foods that can cause acid reflux, but not go over board with these food changes
- if his eating improves, we can guess he has acid reflux
- if his eating doesn't improve, we take him off the acid reflux medicine and potentially take him off his appetite enhancement medicine because he could just be a kid who doesn't eat much.