Cosette Update

Just an update on Cosette... Got the test results back for the celiac test and she has a "weak positive." I guess 0-3 is negative, 4-10 is a weak positive, and 10+ is positive, and she came back at a 4. The only way to verify that someone truly has celiac disease it to do a biopsy of the small intestine. Her doctor at the Health Center sent her lab results as well as the doctor's notes on Cosette to the pediatric GE to see if he wants to see Cosette any sooner than the end of April. So we'll wait to see if he wants to get her in sooner and if he's not worried then we'll cut gluten out of her diet to see if it makes a difference. If it does make a difference we'll reintroduce it and if it effects her again then we'll have a diagnosis. I'm kind of irritated because when the nurse read me the lab results she was kind of callous and said that she didn't know if they'd do anything because the number was so low and I was thinking, "do you know what we've gone through?!?!" I figured she wouldn't call the doctor and the doctor gave me her number so I went ahead and called her myself and she was very nice and called the Health Center herself and got things rolling. So, that's what's going on right now.

Dinner of Champions

The kids had butter and popcorn for dinner tonight. Not buttered popcorn. Butter AND popcorn. They scooped out butter into a spoon and then smeared cold butter onto cold popcorn. I was trying not to barf. The question is, is that a better or worse meal than the goldfish and soda Cosette had for lunch yesterday...?
Just don't judge me to my face please. :)

A Child's Take on Evolution

A few weeks ago I was babysitting my friend's kids when I overheard Debbie and her son having this conversation at dinner...
B (The neighbor boy): "Did you know humans came from apes?"
Debbie: [Seriously appalled] "Ummm, no we didn't."
B: "Yes, we came from apes."
D: "I DID NOT come from an ape."
B: "But that's how humans were made."
D: "No it's not. GOD made us. We came from Adam and Eve."
B: "But we came from apes."
D: "How do you know? Did you see it happen?"
B: "Uh... I saw pictures."
D: "But did you SEE it happen???"
B: "Well no... but I've seen pictures."
D: "Then how do you know that's how it happened?"
Haha, I love it! He couldn't back up his arguments after that and I kinda felt bad for the kid but I couldn't be more proud of her, totally sounds like a response I would give. She was very confident and calm. It was fun to listen to and it gave Chad and I an opportunity to talk with the kids about what we believe and explain that they're going to learn about evolution in school but know that we believe something different. I find it interesting that her gut reaction to the basics of evolution was repulsion. Honestly that's my reaction too and while I have other reasons for believing how I do I also feel that the Holy Ghost verifies truth and I feel that we can often judge truth by our initial reaction, that first feeling we get when we hear something, and it's just so interesting to me that a child who has no reason whatsoever to believe one way or another would have such a strong reaction to evolution.

Cosette

Cosette came to me tonight and told me, "I'm really scared of the enema" and then she softly added, "I wish I didn't have this problem." Oh sweet little girl, me too. Me too.
We went to the doctor again today and the good news is that the poop mass is slightly smaller. Which is very, very encouraging. The bad news is we're going to have to keep up with the laxatives and enemas for another week, which is just no fun because they cause so much cramping. The doctor also ordered some blood tests today to test for anemia, hypothyroidism, celiac disease, and another one (I can't remember exactly what it was). Everything but the celiac test came back by this afternoon and everything looked normal. Hopefully we'll know the results from the celiac test by the end of the week.
Cosette's preschool teacher called me today and told me that "Cosette makes [her] laugh every day." She was telling me how impressed she was with how knowledgeable Cosette is about her whole situation. She was laughing because she went to ask Cosette how the doctor went and Cosette was telling her all about the enema and the blockage and she just thought it was funny because she was standing there "having an adult conversation with a 5 year old." Haha, that's our Cosette! She's so stinking smart! That girl doesn't miss a thing, and her comprehension is amazing. She has a killer memory but she doesn't know she's smart so she doesn't show off so she's constantly taking me off guard with her intelligence. I just love this little girl.

Set-back

Well we've had a set-back. Cosette's been having a lot of accidents in preschool lately (both kinds) and yesterday her teacher suggested that I take her in and have her tested for a UTI. So I took her in this morning and thankfully she does not have a UTI. She does however have a very large, hard stool that is sitting in her lower intestines blocking her bowels. Fun.

I'm so grateful for the doctor we saw today, she listened to us and actually paid attention when I expressed concern over the constipation Cosette has struggled with her entire life. SO different from our last visit to the doctor about this issue. That doctor looked at Cosette's chart and saw that her mother had bipolar disorder and promptly diagnosed her with bipolar disorder and sent us on our way with some literature about kids and mental illness. Needless to say I felt blown-off and hopeless so even though we've continued to deal with this I just figured it was pointless to bring her into the doctor because there was either nothing they could do or nothing they would do.

So we suffered and we did the best we could on our own. Until today. Then today this wonderful doctor actually listened. She listened and then did a physical exam and then sent us for an x-ray. And the x-ray showed the mass of stool about 4 inches wide that is backing her up and causing her pain and stomach distention.

So now we're basically going to slam her system with stool softeners and laxatives and hopefully that will break it up and solve the problem. We'll be seeing this doctor weekly until everything is resolved and we have an appointment with a Pediatric GI specialist in case we need to go that route. But I'm praying this will be a relatively easy fix.