Well, first, let me back up. Cady had her dr. appt with the GI specialist last wednesday and they drew bloodwork and took a lot of tests. They said they would ONLY call IF the lab results came back abnormal. I called on Friday to see if they came in (impatient, yes!) and they told me they wouldn't be in until the end of the following week. Well, on Monday, i was in Wallgreens shopping and i noticed I had a missed call from her GI. They left a message stating the results came in and I needed to call them! My mind INSTANTLY started racing, but of course when I called back they were at lunch :(
After I waited the longest hour of my life, they finally called back just to tell me that her lab results showed that she was allergic to milk! WHAT A RELIEF! That was old news! (side note, her egg allergy did not show, but that doesn't mean it went away so we have to see an allergist to double check).
They tested for EVERYTHING! All of her organs, including kidneys, liver, pancreas. They did a CBC, and a complete metabiolic study, and about 5 other tests that I can't spell and all the results were NORMAL! :) PRAISE GOD!
Anyways, i had to take Cady to her regular pedi this week for something totally unrelated to her weight, and i told him everything that happened with her GI. Thankfully, all of her dr's are through Cook's Children's medical so they each can look at each other's charts. Her dr (this sweet OLD guy who is sooo old it's cute) was pretty much satisfied with her results, but wants us to come back in 6 weeks to see if she's gaining weight.
The reason he wants to see if he's gaining is because Cady is now on a high calorie diet. Basically, they gave us high calorie juices for her to drink (though they are on back order for 3 weeks) and this stuff called Duocal, which is LITERALLY powdered calories. I am to sprinkle/mix it in any and everything! I put it with her fruit as a dip (like powdered sugar). i mix it in her ketchup, applesauce, oatmeal, veggies, butter, and even put it on her popsicles!
Do you know how hard it is for me to feed her like this? I mean, not that i'm just feeding her "junk"... we need to avoid empty calories but since there aren't many calories on veggies we need to add calories to them! i don't add it to her meat bc, well, powder doesn't really "stick" to meat, that's why I mix it in her bbq sauce or ketchup or gravy. She gets 8 scoops of calories per day (per her dietician) and each scoop is 25 calories. I'm also trying to feed her more "fattening" snacks, which is SOOOO HARD!!!!! Because, for every 1 cookie she eats, i eat 7! and for every 1 marshmallow she eats, i eat 4! and for every bite of bread she eats, I eat a slice!! YOU SEE MY PROBLEM ;) lol, I buy her these popcorn CHIPS, bc popcorn is on her list of food but she's too little to eat popcorn but these chips are a great alternative, and i don't like them which is PERFECT ;) lol
Since she's allergic to milk, she can't have ice cream but I did buy her this soy/non dairy "ice cream" and it's actually pretty good (and expensive!) but the problem is, she doesn't really like it, so i end up eating it! lol
I had to special order her "calories" and picked them up today from the pharmacist and it looks like it's going to cost me about $30/month for the powder. The juice boxes had to be special ordered too (i found out that it's Ensure, but not the creamy kind you buy on the shelf because that has milk protein (which is specifically what cady is allergic to) and these are like Hi-C juice boxes. they come in apple and berry flavor. Cady isn't too fond of them so we end up watering them down to get her to drink them which is fine. Her dr. said she's to get 2 juice boxes per day. For a month's supply, it's looking like it's gonna cost me over $100. I'm going to see if I can get insurance to pay for this. I don't know where to begin, but I did get a letter of medical necessity so i figure that's a good place to start.
Her regular pedi is hoping she will gain at least 1 pound within these 6 weeks. He said he would be tickled if she gained a pound in 6 weeks, considering she's only gained 5 pounds within the last year! lol I'm not too concerned since all the tests came back normal. I'm not trying to fatten her up either, i just want her to weigh on the chart (even the 1 percentile will suffice!!!!)
She is so cute though with her little self and I love her and he Lord perfectly created her to be this little ball of joy :) and I am extremely thankful to Him for her!
Well, that's the latest :)
peace, love, and blessings
-the not so hungry mama-
