Thursday, February 18, 2010

soothing skillz and ranitidine

An update on our little GERDling:

The doctor put her on a teeny dose of ranitidine (zantac), which seemed to help almost immediately. I was all set to write a jubilant post about the wonder-drug, but then it became apparent that it only helps and doesn't remove the trouble completely. Today, for example, has been a crying, hiccuping, spitting-up day. . . :(

But I do think that her good days outnumber her bad now.

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I am really grateful to have finally figured out what was going on. Back around the time she was 5 - 6 weeks old, a good day was when I managed to get dressed by the time the boys got home from school. My brain felt fragmented, like our hard drive (ha), and I was starting to feel like Linguine on Ratatouille: "I'm insane I'm insane I'm insane I'm insane!"

And now I have gained empathy for others who have gone through this. I used to have a sort-of complacent way of thinking, "Well, they must not be willing to hold their baby as much as she needs" or whatever. Well, now I know. Sometimes babies hurt and you can't help them. And then all you can do is kiss them and hope they feel better soon. . .

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5 comments:

snbjork said...[Reply to comment]

Aw, I'm sorry to hear that she isn't doing any better. We went through that with Evelyn for the first several months (felt like forever at the time). LOTS of crying and not enough sleeping. Rough times. It is amazing what a little experience will do for your perspective, eh? I wonder why we always feel the need to judge everyone, as if we can do everything better. Silly human nature. I guess that's why God gives us children to help to humble us. =) Keep hanging in there!

Marc and Megan said...[Reply to comment]

Michelle, I'm so glad that you were able to get the Ratatidine. We've felt the same... glad that it helps some but wish that it would just make all the pain go away completely. I've been wanting to let you know about something else that has helped our little Ben, something we tried since I last talked to you. We have a chiropractor in our ward and he offered to just check Ben out to see if anything was out of whack. Turns out that his "C1" (or something like that) was out of place, probably from the process of birth. So, he did this very simple and gentle adjustment... and honestly it has made an even bigger difference than the meds. The way he explained it is that our bodies are meant to heal themselves and when something is tweaked just the slightest bit it can affect other parts of the body from functioning like it should. So, making this small adjustment seems to have already started to make a difference. I have to admit that I was super skeptical and even afraid of having him look at Ben, but the last four days have been the best we've had since he was born. Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out there... it might be worth looking into. I hope things keep getting better for you and Rosemary!

Devin and Melinda said...[Reply to comment]

Good luck, I hope she starts feeling better really soon. She is beautiful!!

Becky said...[Reply to comment]

Gerdjzob, Michelle. I do hope she does better soon, although neither of you really need any beauty sleep.

llamitanan said...[Reply to comment]

I pray little Rosebud is healed soon. When I had GERD, it was miserable. Poor little thing! Becky G. says there is an herb that helped her grandsons. She is going to ask her daughter what they were if you are interested.
Keep those pictures comin'! We LOVE them!