It's a good news, bad news thing

Do you want the good news first or the bad news?  Okay,  I'll choose.  I always like to end on a good note, so bad news first.  The bad news was that Christopher was still refusing to eat.  The good news was that we could finally throw those beach towels away.  He definitely wasn't throwing up anymore.  The surgery was certainly effective as far as that was concerned. 

Even though the projectile vomiting problem had been solved, the "not eating" problem soon loomed even larger.  We quickly realized that it really doesn't matter if you throw it up or not, if you never eat it in the first place. Christopher was not interested in having a bottle anywhere near him. 

Not surprisingly his weight was suffering.  Each and every morning they weighed him, and each every morning his weight went down.  My anxiety level ticked up a notch with every ounce he lost.  It had been days since the surgery.  His incision had healed nicely, but it seemed like we had just traded one set of problems for another. 

At this point I really didn't care who was right or who was wrong, I just wanted Christopher to start eating, gain weight, and be normal.  Call it fussy baby, bad mothering, the flu, or "learned behavior."  I didn't care.  I just wanted this to stop, but it didn't.  Every day it seemed like we were "taking two steps forward and one step back." 

It wasn't for lack of trying.  The doctors were doing their best to help Christopher especially the GI doctor and the feeding specialist.  They really put their heads together to try to solve the mystery.  The feeding specialist was working with us on a daily basis, and he pulled out all the stops to encourage Christopher to give eating another chance.

After a few days of using everything in his bag of tricks, he was successful in getting Christopher to eat a little.  It wasn't a lot, but it was something.  It was progress.  The best part was that it stayed down.  I was very hopeful.  I told myself to be patient.  Things were moving in the right direction.  It was just a matter of time, and everything would be okay.

Well, I was right about one thing.  Christopher did continue to eat, but it wasn't long before we realized that a new problem was about to surface.  There would be no quick fix, no easy answers.  Not only would the diagnosis prove to be very difficult, but the treatment might even prove to be fatal.


If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can pray like this:

More tomorrow...