Emma's Allergy Testing

Emma had the basic allergy scratch testing done on December 22 and she had no reaction, so they did a "patch test". That's what you see in the picture here, well the aftermath of the patch test. They take little metal well, about the size of a nickel, and put pureed food in it. Then it's taped to your back for 48 hours and after the time is up they look to see if you have a reaction. Well we know that she had to have a food allergy and the patch testing was the better than the alternative. The alternative was eliminating the 8 major allergens (wheat, soy, peanut, tree nut, fish, shellfish, egg, milk) then waiting 6-8 weeks to have another endoscopy(scope). If the scope was clear after that then we would slowly reintroduce the foods back in and keep having her scoped to see if there was a reaction. Matt and I both hated the idea of her having another scope, so we are hoping the results of the patch test are good enough for the doctors now. Her patch testing showed a wheat, rye, pork, and string bean allergy. She may also have an allergy to corn and soy, but because she is not symptomatic we are not eliminating those 2 right now. So for now, we are gluten free plus pork(which we don't eat anyway) and string bean free. After a few months she will have another scope to see if the irritation and damage to her esophagus has healed then we'll know whether to eliminate corn and soy from her diet. I REALLY hope we don't have to get rid of corn/soy as they are found in almost everything you buy at the grocery store! So far both of the girls have been doing good on the gluten free diet and seem to be growing now.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Family Pictures 2010

We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago by some good friends of ours. If you are interested in having pictures done and are in the West Michigan Area I would highly recommend Alexis. She does a great job, is very professional and has a cute new baby! This is the link to her website: http://www.studioxplore.com/ and here are a couple of my favorites.

Celiac's Sucks!

Today we officially got Emma's diagnosis of Celiac Disease. For those of you who don't know what's been going on I'll give you a brief version. Emma was referred to an endocrinologist because of her short stature and her failure to grow/thrive. Basically she hasn't grown in the last year and has almost dropped off the growth charts. They ran a blood test and found she was testing positive for Celiac. So we had an endoscopy done last week and they took some biopsies. We thought that would be the end of it, but they also told me today she has Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EE). As I understand it she has damage in her esophagus due to a food allergy. She now has to have allergy testing done and more endoscopies to check for healing/damage. There is a possibility that the inflammation in her esophagus is from the wheat/gluten and once she heals from that she may be "normal".

So our new diet has started, which means we can no longer eat most of our favorite foods. Gluten is found in just about every processed food so we are still trying to find alternatives. Please don't be offended if we don't want to go out to eat or have dinner at any one's house, but we have to get all this figured out first. It's very overwhelming when you start learning about cross contamination in the kitchen and how much it's actually hurting her. All we want is for her to be healthy again. It looks like this coming year is going to be just as hard as this past, but hopefully we will get everything figured out soon.

On a side note, Isabella is also testing positive for Celiac and has an appointment in a few weeks to see if we should do further testing. Matt and I are also going to do genetic testing to see who is the carrier for Celiac. If we are both carriers then there is a good change Oliver has it too and that we can also develop it later in life. We will also be urging people in our families to get tested as well.

Isabella's 3rd Birthday

Isabella turned 3 over the past weekend and we had a little party for her. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated the day with us. We had a good time and good food.

Emma's Halloween Party

Today was Emma's Halloween party at school. The kids were all dressed up and had a good time playing games and eating snacks. Emma also has a friend at school named Kennedy. They really seem to like each other and make it a point to sit next to each other.

New House

A lot has happened in the last 2 months and I am finally getting a chance to breath and get caught up. As you may or may have not known Matt got a new job working a Fulton Innovations, which is a division of Alticor/Amway. He started in February and we moved back up to Grand Rapids. We were renting a condo until we sold our house in St. Joe and decided where we wanted to live up here. We decided on Northview because of the location, schools and housing prices. This time we built a new house and are planning on staying here a while.

In July I turned the big 3-0 and celebrated by being pregnant for another birthday. Matt was going to throw me a party once we got moved but it looks like that is not going to happen now, so maybe next year.

We got moved into the new house over the second weekend in August, just 4 days before my due date. Thankfully Oliver was fashionably late and waited until we finished moving. We are still trying to unpack and get organized, but are finally settling in. If you ever want to come see the house or baby and visit us we would love to see you.

Also if you'd like to have access to our family pictures on Picasa let me know. It is no longer public and you have to be invited to see them. Nothing personal just need to protect my babies from all the creeps out there!