Went To The Dr's Today...

[sarahelizabeth]

I took Matthew into the ped's today to try to get help with all of our issues... chronic constipation turned into going back and forth between diarrhea and constipation, over sleeping and tiring easily (he's been sleeping 16+ hours a day), not eating, still breaking out in hives/rashes, etc. We weren't able to see our regular ped (who I love) because he's away on a 2 week mission trip (I should have asked where... I think its so cool he does that). We saw one of his partners who I really ended up liking too. She spent a lot of time with us and went through everything that has been going on very carefully.

Her first concern with the increased sleeping was possible sleep apnea because of enlarged adenoids... especially with his history of recurrent and chronic ear infections. She was going to order an x-ray and a sleep study but once I told her we were going to see our ENT in less than a week for f/u from his second set of tubes put in a month ago she decided to defer to his judgement on that on.... which I VERY much appreciated. She did tell me to go into his room and watch him sleep a few times a night for the next few days and watch for any snoring, mouth breathing, or anything like that.

She decided to run a CBC, sed rate, and TTG... I didn't even have to ask her to test for celiac... she brought it up on her own She said she's looking for anemia, signs of IBS or colitis (an inc sed rate I guess would show that?), or celiac. She said if that all comes back normal then we will go back to treating the constipation and see if the diarrhea goes away once the constipation is better.

She told me to take out ALL processed foods from his diet and keep him totallly on fruits, veggies, and meats to see if we can get rid of all hidden sources of allergens.... especially since his allergies are unusual. If none of that works than back to the GI Dr we go (we already see the allergist again in the end of the summer). His weight was okay... he was actually 25.5lbs which was a good gain from our last appt... so she was not worried about malnourishment or anything like that.

I was really happy with the appt!! She was so thorough and helpful and I didn't have to go in demanding anything... she took care of it!! Now we just have to sit back and wait for everything to come back. She did say she thought that Children's only ran TTG's on Wed so it will be a week before we'll here about that

Thanks again for all your help!!

[Lisa]

I am glad that you are encouraged in the absence of your doctor. The doctors seem to know what they are doing. With hopes some answers will come quickly.

[Juliet]

Just remember for the Celiac Disease blood tests, your child will need to continue to eat gluten (for an adult I was told about 2 pieces of bread a day, so maybe 1 piece for your child????) everyday until the tests are done. Otherwise you are at an increased risk of getting a false negative. And several people made the comments that you need to get a full blood panel done, but I'm not certain what exactly that involves.

[marlykarly]

I hope you get answers.. so you child feels better soon.

If the tests don't prove any answers for you.. I would encourage you to have him tested for parasites..

my oldest ds contracted them on a missions trip .. and his symptoms sounded very similar to your son's. Most US docs don't think to check for the parasite..but if you can let them know the area that your son was.. he may be able to target the most common parasite to that area.

Hope it all works out well for you.

[sarahelizabeth]

I hope you get answers.. so you child feels better soon.

If the tests don't prove any answers for you.. I would encourage you to have him tested for parasites..

my oldest ds contracted them on a missions trip .. and his symptoms sounded very similar to your son's. Most US docs don't think to check for the parasite..but if you can let them know the area that your son was.. he may be able to target the most common parasite to that area.

Hope it all works out well for you.

My son has actually never been out of Ohio Now thats not to say that parasites can't take a free ride into here on our foods but we definitely haven't been any place exotic.