Brave Guy!

Today Nicholas had an endoscopy to look at his vocal cords. The first test to figure out why he throws up so much. Courtney and I have both had this test to diagnose our vocal cord dysfunction -- it's a small, flexible tube with a camera on the end that is inserted up your nose and down to your vocal cords. 

It's not fun. In fact I dread it. When Courtney had to have it, I was very sorry for her, but she's old enough and brave enough that I knew she'd bear it well.  I didn't think Nick could do it. He's too small, too young and gags so easily.  Courtney and are very brave and very calm with stuff like this and we both HATED it!  The thought of Nick having to do it made all my Mothering instincts say no!

I hoped they would be able to look at his vocal cords with the camera you just stick in your mouth. Also tricky, but a little easier.  But when we showed up at our appointment yesterday, they so casually said they were doing the camera -- up the nose and past the throat.  I painted on a smile and let the cute nurses do all the talking to Nick about how it's not so bad and he'd even get a prize after!!  (He was actually pretty excited about the slinky...)

Made it seem like an endoscopy is no big deal!

Guess what?... he did better than even Courtney and I did. They got a great video of his vocal cords and they look perfect.  He was able to "Hmmmm" and "Heeeeee" so they could see the vocal cords move. After the doctors were done, Nick was actually relieved that the procedure was so easy!!

The area around his vocal cords is quite lumpy which the doctor said is a sign of acid reflux.  We've got an appointment in a few weeks to take a look at his esophagus, biopsy, place an impedance probe and evaluate for reflux, allergies etc.  That one will also not be fun -- he'll be out with anesthesia, but the probe will require him to have a tube out his nose taped to the side of his face for 24 hours. Yikes!  I'm waiting to tell him about it until the day before. 

Look at his picture!! Isn't he the cutest?!