Update

Titus is doing much better now that he's had his first 2 doses of his medicine. He has gone from screaming constantly, to actually having some happy times. And his fussy time is now just fussy, not screaming. I've been told that it can take up to a week for the medicine to be in full effect and we should see him gradually get better between now and then. There is enough of a difference though that I definitely think we have the right diagnosis. Supposedly, if I don't notice significant improvement we are suppose to call the dr again on Monday and they will prescribe a 2nd medicine to add to this one. The only down side is the cost. It is $162 for one month of Titus Medicine and we are expecting him to need it for the next 12 months! Thad only filled part of it because of the cost and he will be calling our insurance company to try to get the paperwork and everything through before we need to refill it. I know that our insurance will be retroactive to his birth, but that doesn't do us any good for filling prescriptions. I found some other moms who have had to deal with this and from what I can get from them, we are very lucky that he was diagnosed so young. There are all sorts of complications that can come up the longer it is undiagnosed. One mom has a toddler who was diagnosed at 3 months old. By that time, the baby had completely stopped eating because he associated eating with pain. Now at 14 months old, he is still fed through a feeding tube and refuses to take anything by mouth. I guess this is where we thank God that we have a good dr who didn't just write it off as colic or a fussy baby and we are able to start treating him at 3 weeks old before it gets any worse.

For those who don't know what GERD is...

There is a thin valve thing (not sure what it's called) at the top of the stomach / base of the esophagus that is suppose to allow food to go in, but not come back out. GERD basically means that this valve was not sealed on Titus when he was born. So when he eats, the stomach acid and whatever he ate leaks out into his esophagus and burns him. Most babies with GERD throw up a lot. Titus doesn't. He spits up occasionally but not often. The biggest clue that he has this (other then his X-Rays) is the fact that when he burps, he arches his back and screams like it hurts. The medicine they gave him is to neutralize the acid. It won't stop him from throwing up or from the contents of his stomach leaking out, but it will make it not painful and will make it so his esophagus doesn't become damaged from the constant acid exposure. In most cases, this valve seals itself sometime between 9 months and a year and a half. In a few rare cases, the baby ends up needing surgery to fix the problem if it doesn't fix itself.

So, now you know as much as I do about what we are dealing with.