Gastric Emptying Study

As expected...the organisation of the gastric-emptying study was not organised in the slightest. In fact, it was chaos. Frankie was given midazolam, a sedative, before we left the ward. In the radiology waiting area it was very obvious that nobody knew what the heck was happening when they told us they needed to ring the dietician to talk about how much liquid she thought Frankie would be able to tolerate being pumped into her belly. A job that we were told would be done yesterday.

That was followed by a second person telling us that we needed Frankie's formula and pump with us down at radiology. Back to the ward. Oh, and they didn't have a syringe which we would need to put the radioactive liquid down her tube. By this stage the sedative that made Frankie act like a drunk who'd had too many redbulls and who wanted to fight anyone who told her what to do, had worn off. I suggested another dose and, after a phone call, we got the go-ahead from a doctor. The only issue was that a second dose was likely to knock her out completely. Perfect, we thought. She needed to lay still under a camera for an hour so that'd be great.

Before that though, we mixed the radioactive fluid they would track as it moved through her system in with 60ml of her formula. We would normally give Frankie 60ml of feed over two hours. This stuff was pumped in within ten minutes. And, to everyone's surprise, she was keeping it down. As we approached the last of the feed Frankie moved to chase a string of silver beads she had become obsessed with and the nurse with the syringe was yanked, dropping the radioactive formula on the floor. The beads were radioactive. The floor was radioactive. And Chris was radioactive. Oops.

The second dose of midazolam did not make Frankie pass out as the doctors had predicted. In fact, she would be awake for a total of seven hours. Apparently two doses barely touches the sides on this little whirlwind.

After a bit of crying, we managed to get Frankie relatively settled on the table, almost squished by the camera above her. Chris and I spent 40 minutes distracting her from the verge of upset, our hearts in our throats terrified she would cry, vomit and void the whole study. However, she did amazing. 40minutes under the camera, a 20 minute break, 1 minute under the camera, 1 hour break, then a final minute back under the camera. What a trooper. She even sat in her cot, stoned off her head on midaz, while getting wheeled through the hospital by medical staff she would normally scream at the sight of. But seriously...zoom in on her eyes for an insight on what two doses of midazolam will do to a child that it's supposed to knock out.

That afternoon Frankie showed a little more interest in food. She bit of a piece of jatz cracker, put a potato gem to her tongue, ate half a spoonful of puree. And eventually we got news that the study had shown normal gastric emptying. With a side of reflux. A good result after a very, very long day.