Mojo interrupted

We should have seen this coming from Mars. We broke every difficultly learned lesson. We messed with mojo, scorned superstition and jinxed our juju.

Never, never, never tempt the Fates so brazenly as to post a video online to the tune of "Happy Baby."

Since it's been up, she's been anything but. Like a moldie oldie, all her Greatest Hits are back: Inconsolable tears, fussiness, whining and reflux.

For the first day or so, we thought it was cyclic. Then, we worried about a cold or allergies. When she spat up what appeared to be old blood yesterday, we knew it was time to call upon our old friend, the gastroenterologist, Dr. Spitenup.

He shined a special light today on the evidence -- a dirty bib -- and confirmed our fears. It's blood. She's not just depressed about the cancellation of "Gilmore Girls." There's a serious rum-tum-tum in her tummy and throat. So it's time to take a look and get serious, once again, about her nemesis, reflux.

She's scheduled for an out-patient endoscopy next Wednesday at our home away from home, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Beaumont Hospital. She will be sedated. Spitenup will snake a scope down her scope and assess damage to her esophagus. If it's isolated, we'll likely stay the course of twice-daily treatments of Prevacid. If it's not, we'll have to get more aggressive and perhaps try more medicine.

Quick lesson about reflux: It's the bane of kids with CdLS. The stomach shoots liquid up the throat. Sometimes, it is spat out the nose or mouth. More often. it is swallowed. It's heartburn and majorly annoying. Aside from surgery, it isn't solved but managed with medicines like Prevacid that neutralize acids and prevent corrosion of the esophagus and mouth.

We have come to respect Spitenup and his mysterious ways, but his conservative, stay-the-course approach sometimes rankles. We're bummed to return to the hospital -- even for just an afternoon -- for the third time in as many months. We're sadder still that the baby who was so happy a week ago is so miserable. But we're glad that Spitenup finally seems to be taking us seriously. For too long, we've stuck with wait-and-see. It's time to act.

And this time, we've absolutely, positively, cross-our-heart, rub-a-rabbits-foot, find-a-four-leaf-clover learned our lesson. No more sweeping declarations announcing the glorious state of Hope to the world.

From now on, it's strictly facts ... unless of course, the reverse-reverse-mojo rules apply and the mere act of stating that she's miserable leads to a dramatic turn in her temperament.