Gastric Emptying Test

Monday morning, we had Cooper's solid gastric emptying test.

They told us he could eat one of three options for the test: eggs, oatmeal, Rice Krispy treats.

When the scheduler called, and gave me those options, I told her he can't have any of those. 

So they were going to contact the radiologist and find out if we had different options, and I was going to contact the allergist to find out if we could let him have one just this once.

When he got back to us, they decided he could have the Rice Krispy.

Then a week later we got a call at 11AM on the friday before the test, and they told us how much he had to eat, about a chicken nugget and a half's worth, and I said he won't eat that much of anything regularly, plus we didn't know if he would even eat the Rice Krispy since he has never eaten them before.

What else were our options.

What can we do if he doesn't eat that much?

She gave a few more options that he could have, including sunflower butter, and actual chicken nuggets.

I called our allergist, but he doesn't work on Fridays.

Normally, you call and leave a message and his office is TERRIBLE at getting back to you. 

I constantly have to call back after the 48 hour window, and ask to speak to someone directly.

I'm telling you, I have no idea how working parents of kids who have multiple doctors do it.

If I worked, I would be on the phone my entire shift some days.

I called and went through the front office and said I needed to be put in direct contact with someone who can help me because I know our allergist doesn't work fridays, but we were just informed of new things, at 11 AM, that he could have for his emptying test, which is at 9 am the following Monday, so I needed an answer from someone in the practice.

I wanted to make sure those weren't big things that could cause a reaction.

I wasn't comfortable making a choice on my own.

Especially about the sunflower butter (I literally blended sunflowers in the food processor to make a butter.)

They said they were going to get back to me after I talked to them, which of course they didn't, and we just decided to hope that Cooper would eat enough of the Rice Krispy.

I thought it would be a good decision to give Cooper the Rice Krispy the day before, and let him scope it out on his own.

We all had one and even our neighbor joined in.

We told him it was candy and we let him take the treat, wrapper and all, and do his own thing.

 He took his time, but eventually ate a third of it!

So the next day, we get to the scope early because we were trying to beat rush hour, and luckily they took us back early.

They told us he needed to eat half the treat in 7 minutes.

I laughed.

I told them he has never eaten that much.

Ever.

She put the radioactive particle on the top left corner and told me to try to get him to eat as much as possible and she would be back in 7 minutes.

One thing about Cooper is when you force him to eat, he isn't going to. 

I was pushing him to eat, and he was getting frustrated and said, "no" and started to walk away in the room.

I found some toys and we bribed for bites.

He ate about a cm off of the top of the treat and refused more, then his time was up.

We were told when we scheduled the test that it was a 2 hour test, but I didn't know that it was 2 hours strapped to a machine.

Poor Cooper.

He held my finger the whole time, as well as the edge of the machine over him. <3

We put Cars on and for the most part, he just laid there.

Then he said he needed to go potty.

We had regular underwear on because he is trained during the day and we didn't realize this was what we were going to be doing.

So we asked for a diaper, and had to unstrap just his legs, and try to change him.

He did well the rest of the time.

And he was able to pick out a new beanie baby when he left.

He chose a rhino.

<3

Results from his test. 

We will know the results and if he ate enough to get conclusive answers soon!

The middle screen's little light is the radioactive particle

He passed out in the car  with the sucker half in his mouth.

 I took this when we were stopped, then took the sucker from him because, clearly this isn't safe :)

Woke up all smiles :)