I'm fairly certain that Caleb will forever be my medically challenged child (too much like his mother that way).
Today we went back to the Wellness Clinic to see JanaLee. We went back in December after his pediatrician said he had dropped from the 4% for weight to the 2% and from 4% for height to 3%. I told the pediatrician we had had success at the Wellness Clinic previously so he told me, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it - go back." He told us when we saw him in November that if Caleb didn't start making some progress he would have to refer us to the dietitian (I told him we had done that once already and it was a joke. He said that he would give us a referral to the other dietitian.) He said that if Caleb didn't make progress after seeing the dietitian that he would refer us to Primary Children's Failure to Thrive Clinic. Sounds familiar, right?
When we went back to the Wellness Clinic in December (after a hiatus since May), Caleb's numbers were almost as bad as they were when he originally went in in October of 2015. At this appointment JanaLee asked if anyone had ever referred us to an endocrinologist. I told her they had not. She said that the testing was showing he had low endocrine numbers and low pituitary numbers. She stated that if she couldn't make a difference by spring she would recommend that we go see the endocrinologist at Primary's. After some consideration, I've decided that pituitary issues would make sense - that's where the growth hormone comes from. He doesn't grow and he doesn't lose teeth - of the 10 he's "lost" the dentist has pulled 8. His teeth also take FOREVER to grow in! He had the four front teeth pulled in October 2015. The two front ones grew back in Sept. of 2016. The laterals STILL have not grown back (that's 16 months). He just had the canines pulled a week and a half ago to make room for the laterals when they finally grow in.
Today I told JanaLee that my mother in law was diagnosed with Celiac's about a week and a half ago. I asked her if she could look and see if he's showing any sensitivities to wheat and gluten. After the testing he was there for, she checked the wheat and gluten sensitivities. He IS currently showing a whole wheat and gluten sensitivity. When I go into the pediatrician's office on Friday this week for his med check I plan to ask if they will do an autoimmune panel to check for Celiac's.
We also visited the chiropractor today. I was telling him about what's going on with Caleb and he suggested that maybe I should have him checked for heavy metals. I plan to ask the pediatrician to check for that when he runs the autoimmune panel on Friday.
At this point, I'm willing to try just about anything with Caleb. He's 8.5 and his 5.5 year old sister outweighs him and is only about 2-3" shorter than he is. I understand he might be small because of genetics, but I don't think anyone in either of our families has ever been as small as Caleb is. His wrists are just teeny and you can see his bones when he doesn't have a shirt on. He eats, just not a whole lot and not a huge variety. We did the NAET testing and treatment with JanaLee, but perhaps the autoimmune panel will show we need to delve a bit deeper. I'm just not quite sure what else to try with him!
Last week I took Nash in to see the eye doctor. I had them reprint his prescription when I took B in at the beginning of February. When I told Nash I was going to look online to get him some glasses he told me, "Good. The board has gotten REALLY fuzzy." I told him I wasn't going to order new glasses until I had his eyes checked because it would be just my luck to buy new glasses with the prescription that's a year old and have them not be effective because his prescription had changed a bunch. Sure enough, each eye is worse than a year ago! Good thing I took him in before I bought glasses!
And last week we finally went back to allergy shots! We haven't been since September because Travis lost his insurance. At the time Nash & Sam were both on once a month for maintenance doses. Since it's been so long since they've been, we now have to go once a week until they get back to their maintenance doses! There really needs to be more hours in a day!
Speaking of needing more hours in a day, Samantha is still doing physical therapy. She's had 3 rounds of iontopheresis. She goes back Wednesday this week for round 4 and then we'll decide if she should continue with two more rounds (they can only do 6) or not. She doesn't go back to see Dr. Seale until March 3rd. Her knee is still bothering her quite a bit. I know she was upset about ballet class because she can't do certain moves without it hurting quite a bit. I have a feeling that when we go back March 3rd we will get an MRI order. She doesn't seem to have developed any new pain, but the pain isn't getting better. That's even after she's cut out running, kneeling, squatting and lunging.
B's ear is still bothering her. We've been doing ear drops since she went in and had the q tip removed. Since it's still bothering her I scheduled a follow up appointment for this week to see if there's something else floating around in there. I have a feeling that the tube is still in place. If that's the case, I'll just go ahead and schedule the removal & fat graft surgery. Perhaps we can deal with that over spring break? Of course, that will depend on what Dr. Hoffman tells us when we go see him on March 21st.
All I can say is at least we have insurance again!
