It's been a very long week at the Frierdich house....but the time goes quickly when you are constantly driving poop samples to the lab in St. Louis!!! For those of you that don't know the history, Cole has been battling frequent stools since the end of September. We already knew he was intolerant to milk and suspected this was just a soy issue. Unfortunately, 3 weeks of a milk and soy free diet haven't improved things any.
His pediatrician ordered blood work and stool samples earlier this week. The poor thing had to be wrapped up like a mummy and then it took them 25 minutes to get 5 tubes of blood. He was tensing up so much the blood just wouldn't flow out.....eventually I think he just got exhausted. :(
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was the lucky one in charge of the stool collection and here's my summary:
(1) The stool cannot come from a diaper - disposable or cloth.
(2) NEVER, EVER use plastic diaper covers (aka rubber pants) alone to catch a stool sample on a 15 month old. After cleaning up poop off the carpet, the counter top (where I stood him to change him), his socks and my hands...I had just enough left for one of the 6 cups I needed to fill!
(3) The rubber pants method can result in the Mother having an emotional breakdown (speaking from experience).
(4) It takes a fine art to turn Glad Press'n Seal into a diaper liner but it can be done...and is much better than saran wrap!
(5) Cole HATES rubber pants!
(6) As a good friend told me, "collecting poop goes above and beyond Motherly duties."
(7) I'm really glad I chose a profession that doesn't literally involve cleaning up shit all day long!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am happy to report that I turned in my last sample today. I had to collect 6 samples from 3 separate stools.
Things reached a bit of a new level on Wednesday when he started passing blood in his stool as well. Just a small amout and most likely due to the inflammation from going so often. I knew at this point it was time to see a Pediatric GI, and much to my frustration this cannot happen until Monday, Oct. 25. As it turns out, however, I think this was a blessing in disguise because some of his bloodwork came back late this evening that the GI doc will need to see.
One of his blood tests was for Celiac Disease and this result came back inconclusive. Two different immunoglobulins are involved in this....one of his was normal and one was very high. My suspicion all along has been a gluten intolerance at some level. I have not eliminated it from his diet yet though because it needs to be in his system for testing to be accurate.
I'm not sure what the next testing step will be and perhaps Dr. Brady (GI) will have some other thoughts based on all his symptoms (which I of course have typed out in a chronological format in excel). I am remaining optimistic that he doesn't have Celiac and even if he does....it could be so much worse. And while there is no cure for Celiac, there are also no shots, no medicines, no trips to the hospital constantly....just no gluten! One thing I do know for sure - God gave Cole to Tony and I for a reason and we will figure this out and make the best of it regardless.
I will keep everyone posted next week after our visit with Dr. Brady. Please say extra prayers that they figure this out quickly and painlessly for Cole.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment