A Christmas Trip to the E.R.

We held Christmas Dinner at our house. Most everyone was able to come although a few had to pull out at the last minute due to illness. We had a great dinner and enjoyed the time were were able to spend together.

 I also enjoyed some time that afternoon just snuggling with my puppy and my boy.

 Everything was shaping up to be another wonderful Christmas then during dinner Landon choked. It's not unusual--in fact it happens a lot. Sometimes it is worse that others, but usually after a few minutes he is able to get the food that he choked on out-however it can be scary and painful to watch. I have been threatening him with doctors appointments for awhile now due to this happening. This time however-he was not being able to dislodge the food. He kept thinking he was going to be able to, but to no avail. We waited hours. He could breath but he couldn't swallow anything-not even water, or his own saliva he would immediately throw it back up the opening was completely blocked. Finally he consented and we headed to the E.R. They checked us in and decided to scope his esophagus to not only get the food out, but to also see what was causing this ongoing problem. They were able to get it out. Their findings were that he had Barrett's Esophagus (most likely due to acid re-flux), gastro-esopahgeal re-flux disease with esophagitis, dysphagia, and a diaphragmatic hernia. In short things weren't going to well down there. They started him on some medication that they thought would help it all and scheduled a follow up for eight weeks to see if it was effective. We only had to fight the insurance company a little bit to get them to cover the medication they didn't think was necessary.

Not really how we wanted to end our Christmas Day-but at least Landon is okay now and getting the help he needs. 

*Update after being on the medication for 8 weeks and having a second scope things were starting to heal and improve, so the game plan is to continue with that for now. He also hasn't choked since it happened before it was occurring once or twice a week.