Monday, January 08, 2007

Blood Test Number One

....and hopefully the last. today we (and by "we" i mean the whole family...) went to see a specialist about daniel's possible celiac disease, to ask questions and to begin the process of formal diagnosis. for the last 3.5 months that we have been feeding him a gluten-free diet, we have suspected that celiac could be the answer, but haven't pursued the testing necessary to make sure. as to why we waited so long, well, for that you will have to ask the insurance companies.

anyway, in many ways it was a relief to finally be on the road to knowing for sure what is going on and the details of what his treatment will be. we began this after getting some half-information from our family doctor and filling in the gaps with my own research (and realizing that in many ways we have done this backwards--and may pay for that later....our family doc recommended taking gluten out of his diet *before* we did any testing, and we now know that if someone has been on a gluten-free diet, the tests can come back falsely negative, so we may have to re-introduce gluten for a while to get an accurate result.)

however, for the record, spending the morning with all 3 boys in the doctors office, followed by a trip to the lab for a blood draw is a very exhausting propostition. if chris hadn't been there, i don't think we would have made it. they all did very well, considering, but having to be quiet and still for 3 hours is a lot to ask of 3 active boys. and daniel, bless his heart, was very brave for the blood draw, but taking 3 vials of blood from a 2.5 year old is just pretty traumatic no matter what you do.

so, we'll see. if the tests come back negative (daniel, chris and i all had them) for the genetic marker, then we are pretty sure that it isn't celiac. if it comes back positive, then we go back for more testing. we are praying for clarity.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Christy, just wanted to let you know that I am thinking of you and your family. I hope that you do get clarity in what is going on with little Daniel. With my daughter on her new gluten free diet she has made alot of improvements, but I still struggle with making her diet interesting, and remembering all the info. that I need to soak in to make her healthy. In the back of my mind I hope that it is something else, but only something that they can fix for Daniel. Being on this diet is tiresome for me and alot of research and work. And there will many changes for Aubrey as she gets older and is more interactive with other children. I am praying for you and your family.

Christy said...

Kudos to you! It's no fun doing that sort of blood work for your little guy:( I, too, hope that you guys get more clarity. And I hope that Daniel (and your family) doesn't have to go through too much more testing.

I enjoyed your New Year's post. We stayed up until 9:30 - but I'm married to a 35-year-old, so that increases the average age at my house. Someday we'll be playing games and watching the kids run around overloaded on sugar and treats at the neighbor's New Year's Eve party, sounds kind of fun and different doesn't it? - and far away!!!