Dontcha love a good curveball or two?

And how weird is it that sports phrases have worked their way into our every day language? I barely even know what a curveball is in baseball, yet I think nothing of using it in the less literal sense. But anyway...
Medical problems are starting to dominate my thoughts again lately. In thinking about Aaric's issues, I was reminded of Xander's long road to a diagnosis, and my thoughts along the way. In some areas of kid health, I have great instincts. In the more severe problems that require a specialists help, my gut is always way off. I'm always certain that nothing is wrong, and I'm always surprised to learn the truth. I guess it protects me from worrying about stuff before we know, though.

With Xander, it was almost 2 years ago when we got him to the urologist. He'd had 2 bad UTIs, both with less severe relapses, so technically 4 UTIs. Surely it could be a coincidence that he'd had 2 severe infections that weren't fully cured by antibiotics, right? Um, no. Just after hearing the history, the urologist was pretty sure it was an anatomical problem. Still, by the time he had the VCUG test, it had been over 6 months since his last one, so I was sure the results would come back normal. Or at the very least, not too bad. But no, he had grade 3 and 4 reflux (out of 5).
The good news is, as far as we know, Xander's ureters are now working perfectly. We actually had some concerns, but I talked to the urologist's nurse who felt that his issues were perfectly normal for a potty training boy, and the ultrasound showed no abnormalities (other than his obvious undersized kidney which we already knew about and supposedly doesn't pose a problem).

So when Aaric went in for his annual hearing test and check-in with the ENT, of course, I assumed all was normal. He's had some occasional ringing in the ears, but I was assured that as long as it goes away quickly, that's not a problem. I figure his headaches that radiate out from his temples are nothing more than like when someone breaks their arm and always feels some pain on the old fracture site when there are weather changes and such. I felt like if anything, his hearing had improved.
You can probably guess where this is going. His hearing has not improved. The right ear (the worse one) is about the same. A few tiny fluctuations, but no real changes. The left one got significantly worse in one frequency. He's got to have an MRI to check for problems that could be lingering and causing his hearing to worsen. Luckily, my optimism continues. I feel pretty certain that it's nothing. but of course, I've done that before and been so very wrong. But it helps that I can't even find anything scary on google about it, so I don't even know what I would worry about. So, I just keep on assuming the best case scenario and choose to ignore the "what if's."

Now Mikayla has been having some problems. Problems that I think it would be impolite to discuss in too much detail so publicly, given her age. Let's just say that back when the stomach viruses that invaded our house every few weeks for several months (man, did I even blog about this? I can't remember! If not, we pretty much spent the whole winter with someone or many someones having tummy troubles. Mikayla's troubles persisted, though. Like, they're still ongoing. Her stomach hurts pretty much every day. Of course, I didn't think to bring this up at her well-kid checkup a couple months ago. So, I talked with her some about her symptoms today and asked some of my knowledgeable friends for advice on what might be going on. To provide background info, I mentioned that she's also constantly hungry. She'd eat all day if we let her. She's borderline overweight. She got my love of carbs and sweets but not my ability to burn them off. I thought it was possible that these things could be related, but really figured they were most likely just random facts about her. But multiple people mentioned gluten intolerance. I read up on it today. It fits. I'd go to the doc, but at best, the doctor would recommend a gluten elimination diet to test it out, and at worst a doctor would brush off the notion that it could be food related and instead want to test for all sorts of stuff first, leaving gluten elimination as a last resort. (happens all the time with gluten intolerant people. food allergies/sensitivities are rarely considered first) So, it seems that step one is to eliminate gluten and see what happens. Dairy is the next most likely culprit.

If it's a gluten sensitivity, she should feel much better as soon as it's all out of her system. Do you know how hard it is to avoid gluten, though!? Especially in a kid who would gladly eat nothing but bread products all day long! But starting tomorrow, we will attempt to eliminate all gluten from her diet. there are some things on my menu for the week that I'll have to modify for her. Like, I think 2 of my main dishes have soy sauce, which has gluten. i'll have to hold a portion out for her that doesn't have it. the bread will be the hardest though, for her. We eat sandwiches, we snack on Naan bread with hummus, we've got pitas on the menu one night, and chicken nuggets, and french rolls... I'm thinking I may put a lot of the breads into the freezer for now, because I think it would be mean to eat them in front of her. Before I do that though, I'm going to look at what gluten free options are out there to replace stuff for her. Like corn tortillas, and some GF breads. Then I could serve her the GF foods while we eat the others, so that at least everything I've bought (yesterday!) won't go to waste.

I really want to hope it's not a gluten thing. or a dairy thing. But my optimism is failing me a bit this time. Gluten sensitivity fits. It would cause her tummy troubles. It would keep her from absorbing a lot of stuff, which would make her feel frequently hungry, and/or could cause feeling in her tummy that can be confused with hunger (One of my friends reports that she often had a hard telling if she felt hungry or full when she was eating gluten!) In some, it can cause weight loss, or failure to gain, in children. In others, it can cause weight gain. It can also cause tiredness. Sometimes she's just full of energy. She's often sluggish, though. It's easy to blow that off as laziness, but now I have to wonder if maybe she's really more miserable than she lets on, and just figures that feeling like crap all the time is normal? In any case, her symptoms fit. And if it's not gluten (or dairy), then there has to be something else wrong. SO in the grand scheme of things, I really hope its "just" the gluten. That's an "easy" fix. Just quit eating gluten. Lots of people do it. It's not the end of the world. No meds are needed, it would just take a while to get used to. And she'll feel much better once it's all out of her system.

So now I take a deep breath, and start researching to find out what all key words I need to look for in labels, and figure out how to alter my recipes so she can eat them, because for the next month, she needs to be gluten free so we can determine if that's what it is. (I read a month, but am still looking to see how long it really takes to get it out of the system. I know dairy is 2 weeks). Luckily, rice and corn are still fine. Oats and wheat are the two main things that we eat, that she can't have. And soy sauce, which is in nearly every marinade I make.
And I take a deep breath and remember to get myself over to the clinic to turn in Aaric's Rx for an MRI, so we can get that referral put in, and get it scheduled, and not think about what all the possibilities are. Assume he's just fine, and that his left ear just had a random drop and it'll stay at that level from now on.

In good/bad news, while it's still very much summer here in NC, the plants know that fall is coming. Xander's allergies are back. Yeah, aww, so sad, he's sniffly and coughs more at night and snores. Which means that I have a medical excuse to give him Benadryl at night again! You gotta look at the silver lining, you know!