Demetri is doing better. He gained 15 grams today, about half an ounce. He was wide awake when we walked in this morning and "played" with us for about 2 hours. He is now getting slow continuous feedings through his NG tube to see if he can better tolerate the feedings. So far, no more reflux, but he occasionally has residuals (food left in his stomach) when they check. They have been feeding him despite these residuals and he seems to be tolerating it ok.
In addition to these small feedings, Demetri has a PICC line in his left arm so that he can get more nutrition. This line also allows for blood draws so that the nurses do not have to continually poke his heals and squeeze the blood out of him.
All of his blood cultures have essentially come back negative, meaning he does not have an infection. One of the viral cultures showed that he had been exposed to parainfluenza virus. So we are still not really sure what has caused him to be sick. Hopefully tomorrow they will do an abdominal ultrasound as well as an upper GI study. These will look at the top and bottom of the stomach to see if there are any problems.
An ENT doctor came by today to look at his palate and upper airway. He did not find any signs of a cleft palate (which could be a cause of the reflux), but found evidence of significant reflux. He suggested starting a more potent reflux medication than Zantac, so Demetri is now getting Prilosec. He also suggested doing a swallow study to watch with an x-ray machine as he swallows from a bottle to see if there are any mechanical problems with his swallowing.
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