Alls Well

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes. I was growing increasingly nervous as the day went on. We are home - it's just before 9:00PM, so it was only 6 hours total which is not bad.
The procedure started about 20 minutes late - I was ready for a couple of hours, so that was a nice surprise. Things went about as expected. We didn't get terrible news, which is a huge relief, but things have definitely deterioriated in the last year. Why? Who knows? Some cultures and the test Monday will tell us that. Next steps? Stay the course unless the cultures show something freaky.
I have been pushing for this test for several months. In March (4 months ago!) Maggie swallowed the tip of a syringe. I wrote about it when it happened. Maggie World: No tip required
It never reappeared. We searched for weeks and I called over and over again. The GI doc was sure I had just missed it. The pulmonologist was concerned enough that they ordered a chest x-ray in May, (which I also wrote about Maggie World: Lucy and Ethel) but it didn't show up. They didn't expect to be able to SEE it because it's rubber, but they could tell nothing was plugged off either.
My continued insistence that symptoms were present finally got them to schedule this but the syringe tip alone was not enough. These pesky symptoms had to be investigated. The GI doc told me in pre op he would NOT find that syringe. I said that's fine with me, I don't want it to be in there.
Of course it was there. Exactly where I said it would be - stuck in her esophagus. In fact it was acting as a perfect plug preventing secretions from dropping down into the stomach backing up into her mouth and probably causing her pulmonary symptoms as well. Hmmm. Perhaps they should listen to moms. I did have some basis for this. She swallowed a tooth once before and they had to get it out of her esophagus months later. Her body doesn't work right and things can't go down (hence the feeding tube). That was an “incidental find”, it wasn't causing any symptoms. It was simply the most expensive tooth extraction in history. The GI doc came out of the OR with the thing in a specimen jar and said “You were right, thanks for staying on us”
If that's the root of the problem, she may get better without any more trouble. If she is aspirating, though, as we all suspect she it, we will have a road ahead yet.
But we're back and she's trying to pull her oxygen off and she's driving Steve crazy, so I better go.