Where We Are Now

It’s been a couple months since my last blog post.  I’ve had to make the purposeful decision to focus my energies in places other than blogging since then. I'm in no way planning to hang up this blog completely, but we're at a time in our lives where I've had to be realistic about what I can achieve and focus my energies on the most important.  Sadly and to my disappointment, blogging does not fall into this category.

However, I did want to provide a brief update on what's going on for anyone who’s curious:

Greyden has been on a strict trial diet for the last two months to hopefully eliminate his EoE symptoms and inflammation. We’ve had to keep him off of gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, and beef. Most people’s response to this is, um, what CAN he eat? Well, he can eat meats other than beef, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, and gluten-free grains.  This combined with my strict diet, and it’s been an exciting ride in our kitchen to say the least.

Grey’s response to all of this has been impressive and somewhat shocking. When we tell him he can’t have something because the doctor said it will make him sick, his response has always been, “Ok.” No fits, no whines, no crying. I had a friend mention the other day that perhaps, although we weren’t aware, he really wasn’t feeling well, and so now when we tell him that foods will make him sick, he’s completely happy to avoid them if it means he won’t hurt. This hadn’t crossed my mind, but it makes sense.

He has a follow-up endoscopy this coming Wednesday to assess if the diet has healed his esophagus. Please keep him in your prayers. We are hoping he is healed so we don’t have to undergo allergy testing and further diet restrictions.

Regarding his vomiting, we have not had another vomiting episode. So the question of whether he has cyclic vomiting syndrome or if his vomiting was caused by something we’ve already tackled is a question still hanging in the air. Perhaps the vomiting was caused by the testicular issues, perhaps it was caused by the hernia they found during his surgery. Perhaps he does have cyclic vomiting syndrome but the triggers were one or more of the foods we eliminated from his diet for his EoE. If another vomiting episode never happens, we’ll never know the answer, but I’ll gladly take a life of never knowing over a life of him spending random half-days uncontrollably puking his guts out.

Otherwise, the kid is happy and spunky as ever. His only noticeable issue is that he’ll sometimes chew foods for 15 minutes and not be able to swallow them. It especially happens with meats. I’ll eventually say, “Grey, do you need to spit that out” and he’ll nod his little head and empty his mouth into my hand. I assume this is related to the EoE. Other than that, he really seems unaware that anything is different in his life, and I’m so grateful for that.

As for me, I am still on a strict elimination diet. I started it the beginning of October, and three months later I’ve only successfully added in a couple foods beyond what I started with. All other reintroductions have made me sick. However, through some testing with a GI doctor I also discovered that I had developed small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and fructose malabsorption. I took two weeks of antibiotics for the SIBO and am feeling much better now as long as I’m careful with my fructose consumption. Now I’m hoping to retry some foods to my diet that failed reintroduction prior to the antibiotics. We’ll see.

On another note, through this diet, all the reading I’ve been doing, and the changes I’ve seen in my own body, I’ve learned SOOOO much about nutrition and health. I seriously feel like I could do health coaching at this point. So if you have any nutrition or health-related questions, or are struggling with any special diet and need some tips, let me know. ;)

Alright that’s the very quick, super condensed version of our current health status. Dave and Krew are doing great and have no exciting health conditions to report. Ok, I take that back. Krew fell off a bed two months ago and gashed his head open on a nightstand and had to get seven staples in his head. And Dave still has some lingering headaches from a severe concussion he experienced many many months ago. And of course he’s always getting some type of injury from playing ultimate.  And about two days ago he started coming down with flu symptoms and has been basically bed-ridden the last few days.  But other than THAT they’re healthy. :)

Keep us in your prayers during this trying time in our lives, and I look forward to the day when I can once again write more regularly on this blog and reconnect with my readers. :)

God bless! See you with my next update!