Fourth round of lab work says....

Remember yesterday when Dr. Garg said she would send off some of Sam's blood that was drawn Saturday off to be tested for vitamin D deficiency and inflammatory bowel disease?

I got a call this morning telling me that the vitamin D results had come in and her vitamin D was low.  The nurse told me that Dr. Garg had called in a prescription for her.  I was like, "Ok.  Progress here."

Tonight, I got another phone call from Dr. Garg's office to tell me that the inflammatory bowel disease had come back negative.  Well, that's good that it's negative.  At least we ruled something else out, right?  While on the phone this time I asked the nurse what the normal level for vitamin D is and where Sam's level was.  She told me that the normal level for vitamin D is between 30-80.  Sam's levels were at 15.  They called in a vitamin D supplement (1.25 mgs) that she takes once a week for 8 weeks.  I asked if she needs to come be retested at the end of the 8 weeks.  Dr. Garg said not necessarily.  She will need to drink 3-4 glasses of milk a day though (she hates milk and she's actually allergic to it).  She also told me that we could have her take 600 mgs of vitamin D per day at this point if she wasn't going to drink the milk.

And then....I got to thinking....I asked about the vitamin B12 again.  Dr. Garg repeated her previous answer about it being extremely unlikely that her B12 would be low because she eats a very well balanced diet.  I sort of put it out there that you know, we're testing everything else, why not?    To my surprise, she agreed with me!  She's sending the order for the B12 draw down to the lab and we can go tomorrow.  We'll just stop in there before we go for the CT scan.  I mentioned to her what Lindsi's plan was with the CT and the sleep study.  She was surprised at the suggestion of a sleep study but thinks it may be a good idea.  She felt that the double Z pack and the CT scan were a great idea to rule out chronic sinus infections.

After hanging up with the Dr.'s office I called and talked to Travis.  He told me he had been talking to his mom and he found out that her vitamin D and vitamin B12 were both low when they were trying to figure out what was wrong with her (before they diagnosed the Celiac).  I called and talked with her after talking with Travis.  She told me they had her taking Folic Acid, Vitamin D and taking Vitamin B12 shots.  She's currently taking around 50,000 mgs Vitamin D (remember Celiac means your body doesn't absorb nutrients like it's supposed to) and B12 shots once a week.

If Sam's B12 comes back low I think we may have our answer!  Crossing my fingers...