Strep Throat for All

Six days to go until the year long blog challenge is complete. Ronan's teacher and at home speech therapist were supposed to come over today for their first joint visit. These plans changed since Jadzia had been diagnosed with strep and the boys woke up complaining of sore throats that accompanied deep chested coughs. I was sure the therapists would prefer not to catch strep or pass it to their families. I cancelled the session.
I made an appointment for the boys for mid morning. The nurse came in and immediately did a strep culture on the boys. Their doctor came in to check the boys and said their throats were really red. Their doctor asked me what was going on with Ronan and his reflux surgery. I told her we had a consultation with his surgeon tomorrow afternoon. I asked her input and she said she felt it should have been done awhile ago. She is concerned his airway is very unprotected and with the aspiration of stomach acid he could easily get throat or lung cancer or even drowned on his reflux.

The boys' strep cultures came back positive and rounds of antibiotics were ordered. They were excited because their doctor let them listen to their hearts with her stethoscope and then showered them with lots of stickers.When we got home I called Ronan's Pulmonologist Dr. Sheets. I asked his opinion on the reflux surgery. He said he was on the fence about the entire thing. Dr. Sheets said it has a huge potential to both help and harm Ronan greatly. The fact Ronan had a esophagus defect makes the surgery a lot more complicated than a child with a normal esophagus. He said there is a chance the surgery could reopen Ronan's esophageal atresia. He did think Dr. Noble (Ronan's surgeon) was the best to make the decision since he is the one who did Ronan's repair.

Another concern is that Ronan has food motility problems. The food motility problems are caused solely from the fact he was born with esophageal atresia. Since the surgery could cause complications with his atresia area this could make the food motility to become worse. Dr. Sheets left me with "Don't let anyone pressure you into doing something you are not comfortable with."

Now I'm just as confused as I was to begin with. After talking to his pediatrician I was thinking we were going to go for it but after talking to Dr. Sheets I find myself once again unsure. I think a lot will depend on Dr. Noble's answers tomorrow.