Our pediatrician asked, "So how's Anya?"
"Well, it's been a challenge."
Some really awesome stuff has happened in the past year since I last wrote anything. Namely, we had another baby girl! She's awesome and we love her bunches. I'll save her birth story for another day.
Something really stinky (literally and figuratively) happened too. Anya was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. It's a very serious autoimmune disorder that is managed by a gluten free diet (which is nothing like the gluten free fad).
After 4 months of chronic diarrhea, we came back from the doctors appointment with the diagnosis I suspected. I, too, cannot tolerate gluten and have been gluten free for 5 years. Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance is heriditary. I was crushed. I came home and bawled. My beautiful daughter looks exactly like her daddy, but she got this from me. I held her and apologized profusely as my tears wet her hair. She didn't have a clue why I was so upset and tried to comfort me with her sweet 2 year old voice, "It's ok, momma."
She's right, it will be ok. I went through a grieving process when I was diagnosed and I am going through another one with Anya's diagnosis. It's just food, right? Wrong. Think about how much of our lives and how many social interactions revolve around food. I wish it were as easy as "don't eat that, eat this". Just today I went to the store and poured over the labels. Some of the products I was looking at didn't appear to have gluten, but why didn't it say "gluten free"? So I stood in the store doing multiple searches on my phone only to put everything I looked up back on the shelf because it shares a processing facility with wheat or some other gluten-filled product.
It's so much more than just what you eat. What did your friend eat? Did they just eat some crackers before they shook your hand? Those tiny gluten particles just covered your hand. Is the surface where you're preparing your food completely clean? It's for this reason we've completely rid our house of gluten. When I think back to my gluten-free efforts over the past 5 years, they're laughable compared to what we're needing to do now.
We took all the gluten out of the house. Everything should've gotten better, but it didn't. What is different now than when we had temporarily taken her off gluten before the diagnosis? The dog. The dog was new. I started observing and realized that our dog loves to lick Anya's hands and face. Our dog is now on a gluten free diet. A few days later, I discovered her shampoo and lotion have gluten in them. For the love! Gluten is of the devil. That's all I have to say about that.
She recently got glutened (yes, that's the term the celiac crowd uses) at a friends house, but otherwise, I think she's very slowly improving. It's so difficult to prevent the cross-contamination. For the first time, I want to put my child in a bubble... I've contemplated it actually.
I should say that Anya's diagnosis is still unofficial. That means that it has not been confirmed by a blood test or biopsy. She was diagnosed on the basis of family history (me) and that a gluten free diet improved her symptoms. In order for her to be tested, she would need to be on a gluten-filled diet for up to 3 months and possibly more. This makes my heart hurt. 3 months of permanent damage to her little insides? Filling our house with gluten once again after all the effort to rid it from our lives? I don't know what to do or how to proceed. So, if you want to do anything to help, you can pray for wisdom. Our doctor has referred us to a pediatric GI in Little Rock so more on that later whenever we get an appointment.
So, how's it going?
"It's been a challenge."
"Well, it's been a challenge."
Some really awesome stuff has happened in the past year since I last wrote anything. Namely, we had another baby girl! She's awesome and we love her bunches. I'll save her birth story for another day.
Something really stinky (literally and figuratively) happened too. Anya was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. It's a very serious autoimmune disorder that is managed by a gluten free diet (which is nothing like the gluten free fad).
After 4 months of chronic diarrhea, we came back from the doctors appointment with the diagnosis I suspected. I, too, cannot tolerate gluten and have been gluten free for 5 years. Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance is heriditary. I was crushed. I came home and bawled. My beautiful daughter looks exactly like her daddy, but she got this from me. I held her and apologized profusely as my tears wet her hair. She didn't have a clue why I was so upset and tried to comfort me with her sweet 2 year old voice, "It's ok, momma."
She's right, it will be ok. I went through a grieving process when I was diagnosed and I am going through another one with Anya's diagnosis. It's just food, right? Wrong. Think about how much of our lives and how many social interactions revolve around food. I wish it were as easy as "don't eat that, eat this". Just today I went to the store and poured over the labels. Some of the products I was looking at didn't appear to have gluten, but why didn't it say "gluten free"? So I stood in the store doing multiple searches on my phone only to put everything I looked up back on the shelf because it shares a processing facility with wheat or some other gluten-filled product.
It's so much more than just what you eat. What did your friend eat? Did they just eat some crackers before they shook your hand? Those tiny gluten particles just covered your hand. Is the surface where you're preparing your food completely clean? It's for this reason we've completely rid our house of gluten. When I think back to my gluten-free efforts over the past 5 years, they're laughable compared to what we're needing to do now.
We took all the gluten out of the house. Everything should've gotten better, but it didn't. What is different now than when we had temporarily taken her off gluten before the diagnosis? The dog. The dog was new. I started observing and realized that our dog loves to lick Anya's hands and face. Our dog is now on a gluten free diet. A few days later, I discovered her shampoo and lotion have gluten in them. For the love! Gluten is of the devil. That's all I have to say about that.
She recently got glutened (yes, that's the term the celiac crowd uses) at a friends house, but otherwise, I think she's very slowly improving. It's so difficult to prevent the cross-contamination. For the first time, I want to put my child in a bubble... I've contemplated it actually.
I should say that Anya's diagnosis is still unofficial. That means that it has not been confirmed by a blood test or biopsy. She was diagnosed on the basis of family history (me) and that a gluten free diet improved her symptoms. In order for her to be tested, she would need to be on a gluten-filled diet for up to 3 months and possibly more. This makes my heart hurt. 3 months of permanent damage to her little insides? Filling our house with gluten once again after all the effort to rid it from our lives? I don't know what to do or how to proceed. So, if you want to do anything to help, you can pray for wisdom. Our doctor has referred us to a pediatric GI in Little Rock so more on that later whenever we get an appointment.
So, how's it going?
"It's been a challenge."