Hannah, Hannah, Hannah. Keeps things interesting, this one. I have often said that God dealt us a wildcard when He gave her to us. She has kept us on our toes since approximately the day we found out we were pregnant with her, and the excitement really hasn't slowed down in her nearly four years of life.
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| But look at this face! How could you not love this face?! |
Brace yourself, because this post is about to go into graphic digestive details...
After three rounds of diarrhea and/or vomiting (see, told you) in the first four weeks of January, we became concerned about Hannah's health, and her tendency to pick up these "viruses". All of these episodes lasted less than 24 hours, and aside from a reduced appetite the following day, she didn't really seem too miserable. However, the frequency was unusual, and though she goes to daycare and is certainly exposed to all sorts of delightful germs, we would have expected her immune system to be taking over by now.
And... when she's not throwing up, it seems like she is always constipated. (Sorry, but don't say I didn't warn you) There just doesn't seem to be a happy medium with this girl. Her belly is always the size of a basketball - adorable, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't appear normal or particularly comfortable.
We saw the doctor on February 4th to discuss our concerns. She listened to all of my complaints, examined Hannah's bloated belly and also noted her steady decline on the growth chart over the past year. Hannah has always been off the charts for height, and right up there for weight - over the last 10 months, she has fallen significantly into the middle of the range in both. While we saw an increase in height over the last year, her weight stayed the same, and her poor little feet haven't grown at all in over 15 months! Her body was getting to the point where she had a 5 year old top (because of her inflated belly), 3/4 year old legs, and 2 year old feet! This was particularly concerning, and she sent us for blood work right away.
I love our doctor because she is very thorough, yet down to earth, and doesn't always lead with the catastrophic diagnoses or worst-case scenarios. With that being said, she mentioned the possibility of Celiacs disease no less than three times during our appointment. Over the weekend, while we waited for the results of labs, I googled Celiacs disease to check out the symptoms (which I normally NEVER do, I swear). On a list of the 10 most common symptoms in children with Celiacs, Hannah didn't just have 3 or 4. She had 9!
On February 11, I answered the phone call from the doctor's office. When I heard that it was the doctor herself calling, I knew it wasn't going to be super news. Though I wasn't totally unprepared for the Celiacs diagnosis, we were still hoping for something else. She let us know that the blood work showed that her antibodies were crazy high, and all of the markers for Celiacs tested positive. She recommended taking immediate steps to get gluten out of Hannah's diet while they worked on expediting our referral to a pediatric GI specialist.
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| Our first step was to rid the house of gluten. One advantage? Increased cupboard space. |
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| Just some of the product offered in our Going Out of Gluten "Sale" |
On Wednesday, I took my first trip to the grocery store to stock up on some gluten-free goods. While I'm certain that the product offering is much, much better than it was just a few years ago, it was an overall depressing experience. I just narrowly avoided a major Mommy meltdown. :(
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The grocery store yielded our first major victory - a gluten free pretzel substitute that Hannah LOVES (this was critical, as pretzels are her go-to snack)
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| Thursday's dinner - does this look the meal of a child who is "suffering" from an incurable disease? |
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| By Friday we were ready to take gluten-free to preschool |
While I don't appreciate major life disruptions in the middle of the week, I was pretty proud of the progress we made since Tuesday afternoon, when we learned of her condition. We were definitely looking forward to the weekend where there was more time to read and research, as well as meal plan.
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Mom & Dad were not the only ones studying up on Celiacs over the weekend. Big Sister read us the children's book on Celiacs disease we picked up over breakfast on Saturday (and we have already caught her reading food labels, too!)
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We are big bakers around here, and by Saturday we were ready to try our hand at our first gluten-free recipe (Nutella brownies - YUM!)
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| Monday brought our visit to the dietitian, which Hannah particularly enjoyed as they had a multitude of "play" food to keep her occupied. |
We now await the visit to the GI specialist, scheduled for this coming Monday (2/24). While her blood work is done, they will likely want to do an endoscope/biopsy of her small intestine to assess the damage done and confirm the Celiacs diagnosis. Though we had her on a totally gluten-free diet for 3-4 days, they have asked us to put one serving of gluten BACK IN until she meets with the specialist, as it's important for them to see her with gluten in her system. We are struggling with giving her foods that we know hurt her, especially after seeing how well she responded to being gluten-free (my beloved basketball belly all but disappeared!), but thankfully it's only for a few more days.
We hope to know more by this time next week. Meanwhile, the "victim" seems mostly unphased by the whole thing. She understands that we need to change the food she is eating, but many of her favorites are already gluten-free (funny how she had sort of steered herself in that direction already), and we have been able to find substitutes already for others. Mom & Dad still have a long way to go in accepting this, and learning how life works as a gluten-free family, but we're up to the challenge if it means our little girl feels better.
We'll keep you posted!
