Short lived

I'm not sure how much I have shared here about our ongoing sleepless nights struggle with Felicity's reflux.  Medications haven't seemed to help, some making it worse, a strict elimination diet helped for awhile, but didn't cure the problem.  It's been such a part of our life that I stopped trying to find a solution and just figured this was "normal".

A couple of weeks ago Felicity was diagnosed with a double ear infection.  Apparently her ears were like those of a child who has had numerous undiagnosed/untreated ear infections.  Great.  Our (new!) doctor prescribe some antibiotics and her ears cleared up, and....her reflux disappeared.

I wish that was the end of the story.  It's back, and back with a vengeance.  Upon further research I discovered that antibiotics are sometimes used to treat reflux because of what they do to the GI system.  However, once the abx are over the reflux comes back.  And, did I mention it's back?  The poor girl doesn't know what it's like to eat without her food coming back up to irritate her throat and nose, and we don't know what it's like to sleep at night without being awakened by a choking, gagging baby. I shudder to think what would happen if we didn't have her in our bed.  Yeah, not going there.

So I'm not sure what her/our future holds.  We have an appointment with a Pediatric GI doc in like 23 years (maybe a slight exaggeration).  In the meantime I'm going to be more systematic about cutting foods out of my diet (again), and we'll see if that helps. 

Felicity is 11 months old.  I'm a little bit of a mess thinking back to the past 11 months.  There are often times I want to say, "Enough is enough!", but it would do no good.  If I've learned anything it's that everything happens for a reason.  Even this trial that seems to be so overwhelming has its purpose.  Am I handling it with grace?  I know for a fact that I'm handling it with coffee (and do I realize that caffeine can affect reflux? the answer is yes, but I'm convinced we are dealing with much more than a 1/2 cup of coffee can cause).  I also know for a fact that Felicity Perpetua is worth all of this "hardship".  My, oh my, how our hearts are full of love for this girl.