Cade's Endoscopy

Cade has still been having really bad reflux.  It has been 3 years now, and we can't seem to figure out what is causing it, or how to get it to stop.  His pediatrician put him on Prevacid, a prescription strength acid blocker.  That didn't help at all.  So she recommended that we go to a pediatric GI specialist.  The GI said that looks like Cade has seasonal allergies, and it is possible that allergies could cause reflux.  That would explain why Cade's reflux disappears in the fall, and flares up every Feb.  The GI Dr. wanted to do an endoscopy to see if there is anything structurally wrong, and to take some biopsies of his esophagus to check for internal allergies.  So on May 18, I took Cade to Phoenix Children's Hospital for an endoscopy.  He had to go under general anesthesia for the procedure, which scared me, but he did fine.  When he woke up, he was loopy for a few minutes--it was funny.  He kept saying that he didn't feel right.  Afterwards, everyone said he wouldn't be in any pain, so we were really worried when Cade complained of severe pain in his chest that night.  Chuck called the Dr, and the on-call Dr. that called back said not to worry, and that Cade would feel better tomorrow.  The next morning, after eating breakfast, Cade was in so much pain again.  I was really worried that something major was wrong, but it turns out that Cade's reflux was irritating the open sores in his esophagus from the biopsies.  I don't know why that possibility never occured to any of the doctors & nurses who told us that he wouldn't experience any pain.  The results of the endoscopy were that the doctor could not find anything wrong or any reason why he has reflux.  I had mixed feelings about that.  Of course I'm glad that there is nothing structurally wrong, but I'm frustrated that we paid $600 (and just got another $400 bill for it) to be no closer to finding a solution to the problem.  The GI referred us to an allergist next, so stay tuned for the continuation if the reflux saga.