[Dailydrool] Buford Update--keep the drool coming, it's helping!

[Heidi I Sarver]

Buford, OEBE Garbagemeister Extraordinaire is doing much better!!  
Thank you to everyone on and off list who sent drool and advice: keep  
it up for a little longer if you can (there are so many babies in  
need!) as I truly believe it is helping.

The key to everything seems to be the Carafate--it coats his scarred  
esophagus from years of acid reflux and seems to quell the burning  
more than anything.  He still has a few moments after eating when he  
has to burp, seems to fight it and that sets him into a type of panic  
attack where he gulps air, etc.  The only thing I can think that cause  
is this is that the heartburn/acid reflux is SO BAD that he will do  
anything NOT to burp because it increases at that moment.  So the boy  
is his own worse enemy!

He is eating, drinking and emptying properly again.  Last night he  
slept through the whole night for the first time in MONTHS!!  No  
middle of the night "Mom wake up I gotta pee" moments.  I woke up at 4  
AM and freaked out thinking the worst because he didn't wake me!  So I  
woke HIM up...well that was stupid because he thought it was time for  
breakfast!

I am really beginning to believe that this has been building for a  
very long time---his water in/out had increased dramatically the last  
couple of months and we all chalked it up to his Cushings meds needing  
adjustment...but his ACTH test was so borderline we left things alone  
until we could do another test.  Now I'm thinking his chronic acid  
reflux was in play--making him try to "drown" the burn with water!  As  
soon as I got into the routine of adding the Carafate back into his  
med mix his water intake dropped by 80%!!  I'm not kidding---he now  
drinks only after each meal and an occasional slurp during the day if  
I'm home.  I have found his water bowl completely full when I've came  
home from work today, as well as when I as out most of yesterday.

So here's to more days like today for the not-quite-11 year old boy  
named Buford.

Thank you all, as always!

--heidi, buford, della and guinness the cat