Update

Whew! So much going on lately, I'm not sure where to start. First, I think our family is finally on the road to recovery after this recent bout with a lovely (what the doctor believes to be) summer adenovirus. Each person developed symptoms 7 days after the last, and it seemed to affect all of us differently. The kids had high fevers, my son for three days, my daughter for five, and hers got up to almost 106! It was crazy. You know what I had, and my husband basically had the same thing I did, though his fever and sore throat were a little worse and lasted a little longer. Oh, well... I will still take that over a stomach virus any day (of which we had FOUR this past year)!!!

This past Monday, my daughter had a minor outpatient surgery to remove a three year-old tube from one of her ears. She had gotten tubes in both ears when she was 18 months-old due to recurrent ear infections/lack of drainage, and they typically will come out on their own in 12-18 months. One of hers came out after about 2 or 2 1/2 years, but this one just wasn't budging. When the doctor got in there, he found the tube to be completely non-functioning, filled with inflammatory tissue and "weeping" (gross). He removed it, patched the hole in her eardrum, then cleaned out the other ear, which was filled with impacted ear wax (runs on Daddy's side of the family). Anyway, not complaining, because her tubes served her very well. It was the right decision for us, hands down. My poor kid had a terrible several months with her ears after her first birthday... it got so bad that she ended up needing a series of Rocephin injections (nasty, but necessary stuff at that point). What I DO regret, however, is that I did not have her on a regular probiotic at that point. I often wonder if I had... would anything be different now? So many children like her have had ear tubes, infections, and/or other illnesses that required multiple antibiotics. This kills the good bacteria in your body, and can lead to other problems... diarrhea, yeast infections, etc... but multiple rounds of antibiotics without probiotic support can cause even more problems... read here for a basic idea. Both of my kids are now on daily probiotics- all the time, whether they are on antibiotics, or not. My daughter chews hers, and I crush it for my son and put it in his juice along with his multi-vitamin. If you do nothing else, put your kids on a good probiotic when they are on antibiotics... here is what we use: Klaire Ther-Biotic.

Last weekend was a total bust for the GFCF diet. I was so poorly planned... totally my fault. I was not feeling well, plus everything we did was very last-minute! Friday night was a preschool classmate's birthday party, (that I had just found out about that day, due to our address change) so I told my husband to just let her have whatever was there. She had a couple of bites of pizza, two small cookies, and a bite or two of cake. It could have been alot worse- she was way more interested in swimming, going down the big slides, and playing with her friends! Saturday, I sent the kids (again... last-minute) to Pap-Pap's family reunion with Daddy. We had been sick, I was feeling especially crappy, and I just couldn't deal. So she ate a bunch of stuff she shouldn't have had. We got right back on the horse on Sunday, which is all we can do... and even going to a baby shower, we did it! Woo hoo! I think that was really our first event to which I brought some of our own things and we were successful! I was lucky they had some plain fresh fruit and plain raw veggies (that Gaga made... THANKS, Gaga!!). I brought along some hummus for dipping her veggies and corn chips, as well as some cupcakes. Now, Monday... the day of her surgery, it was a bit of a traumatic day, so afterwards, I let her have what she wanted. She had half of a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich from Starbucks, as well as half of a doughnut. Oh, well. But that was it. She had just had anesthesia and surgery, for goodness sake- I just wanted her to eat, and well... she just hasn't been eating that great (very much) since starting this diet, and especially while she was so sick, (she has lost 1.5 pounds :( ) so guess what... I didn't care at that moment. Again, right back on the horse for the rest of the day and ever since.

On that same note, we have noticed some changes. Whether these changes are related to going GFCF, or pure coincidence... we're not sure, yet. We really won't know until possibly doing food challenges after a few months. Whether these changes are actually positive changes... well, I'm undecided. To keep it very short... behaviors that seem to have lessened: frequency and intensity of mean, aggressive, outburst-like behavior. What seems to have taken the place of that: increased anxiety, fear, and perseveration about certain things. Honestly, almost OCD-like... there are certain questions she has to ask me over and over (and over and over and over) again, even if I keep giving her the same answer, and she KNOWS I'm going to keep giving her the same answer. It's really hard, if I'm being honest. It can be difficult to maintain a patience level that she needs from me. But I'm trying. I can do the right thing the first 100 times, then that 101st time, I lose my patience, which is obviously counter-productive. Daddy is doing a better job with this than I am. So... things are changing. What is causing these changes- who knows? Her symptoms and manifestation of underlying issues could just be changing. Hard to say.

And the biggest thing of all this week... her hair. :) She and I have been talking for a couple of months now about whether she wanted to cut her hair short, or not, and if so... what did she want to do with it, since there would be so much of it? I talked to her about donating it and what that meant, who would need it and use it, etc. Some days she was all for it, some days not. Well, on Monday, she finally decided she wanted it cut, and she definitely wanted to donate it! We found out about Pantene Beautiful Lengths from my sister-in-law, and for a couple of reasons decided on that vs. Locks of Love. Two WONDERFUL organizations... this was just the right choice for us. They partner with the American Cancer Society, and my daughter donated 8 inches of her hair in memory of her Great-Uncle Alex, whose loss to cancer devastated all of us over 5 months ago. I know he would be so proud, and happy that her beautiful hair would be going to someone affected by cancer and chemotherapy. She said, "Uncle Alex can be the angel who decides where my hair will go." Amazing.