Friday, May 23, 2014

Mommy and me



I made myself this top a few weeks ago but had enough to make a little one. A few night ago I decided to foolishly going to bed in a decent hour and made it. K decided we both had to wear it for her class breakfast and so we did. How fitting too since she read her paper about how I am the greatest mom. How ironic that it comes during the week I've been alone with the kids (Daddy is on a business trip), a week that I will admit that I've been the opposite of being the best mom.

Matching with me made K very happy. I think she feels very mature.

I love you, K.

Monday, May 19, 2014

We can't look alike!



A couple of weeks ago, J got a shorter haircut. She loved it and she said everyone else loved it too. Daddy and I thought for sure that no one would mistake them for each other and people would appreciate that.

This week K finally got her haircut. We tried to make it different, like no bangs, but really, how different can we make the haircut without cutting drastically ? 

J got mad and said, "Mommy, she looks like me!!!" 

The next day Big M confided to Daddy quietely that he now has trouble telling them apart. Daddy told him to keep that fact to himself or his sisters will get upset.

On another day when I took the younger 3 out, they were running around playing.  Little M needed to quickly get J's attention so he yelled out , "J! J! J!" After the 5th time and J wasn't turning to face go , he realized he must have been mistaken. So he yelled out instead, "Sister! Sissssssssssterrrrrrrrrr!"

Sunday, May 18, 2014

My grandmother would be proud



The thing about the different diet restrictions in our house is that we now had to eat at home all the time and I have to pretty much experiment and come up with my own recipe. It's a good thing though - we are all healthier for it.

The above is a stir fry mish mash and is top 8 allergy free. Cauliflower, cabbage,broccolli, baby corn stir fried in olive oil and for flavor I used coconut "soy" sauce. For Little M, we must add a source of protein whenever possible so I threw in chopped up left over ham. Yum.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Endoscopy #2 result

Little M doesn't have juvenile polyp and for that we are very thankful. The bad part is, which I wasn't clear about before, Little M not only has eosinophil white cells in his esophagus, they are also present in his stomach. He has both eosinophilic esophagitis and eosinophilic gastritis. 

As far as the eos count with the 2nd scope, there are zero in his esophagus (150 before) and 16 in his stomach (50 before). This improvement is due the steroid treatment, which is a not a log term solution. The GI and I have decided to go with the top allergy avoidance diet plan. Little Ms diet will exclude dairy, eggs, peanut, tree nut, soy, shellfish. We decided not to include wheat in the diet elimination because the doctor said it would be a hard diet and we don't want Little M to lose weight.

We are now 4 weeks into the diet and not doing too well. The vomiting is back and we don't know why. Obviously it means that we have not taken out the bad foods. We have been keeping a food diary and out best guess is green beans and chicken. So we are adding these to the list of bad foods. We are praying that this takes care of the symptoms.

I am keeping positive but everyday there is vomiting is etching away at my positivity. This disease sucks. 


Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Talking with little m

Little M: I have boobs! Yeah, I have boobs!


Me: You don't have boobs!


Little M: When I was born, did I have boobs?


Me: You have nipples.


Little M: uh huh. Oh yeah! I have nipples! I looooove my nipples! (sing song voice)


***I can only guess that this topic was due to the extreme cold temps.

Monday, December 30, 2013

Endoscopy #2 and Colonoscopy


Little had his 2nd endoscopy a couple of days ago and colonoscopy. After a failed attempt a week and a half ago, it finally happened successfully. We did not do the magnesium citrate route this time around, and opted for Miralax and a slower approached (one extra day). It worked out so much better. He didn't even notice what he was drinking. As always, it was tough to deny him food though.

There was a marked difference in my attitude toward these procedures. I was not worried on the drive over; I was much more relaxed. We came a little early so we had to keep each other company. This time, the attending anesthesiologist was a pediatric one and she remembered Little M from his first endoscopy. She said, "I remember you! You were the very good little boy!" As was the case before, everyone was impressed how good he takes his needles. The one nurse I left him with the first time in order to eat quickly was there, and she too remembered Little M. He remembers her as the nurse who played cars with him and that always lost. 

I accompanied Little M to the OR and only left when he was given Propofol to fall asleep. The endoscopy alone lasted about 15-20 the first time so I was expecting at least that amount of time. Our GI told me that the time for the colonoscopy would depend on if and how many polyps he finds because he would have to remove them. 

I was keeping an eye on my watch closely, and at 25 minutes later I saw my brave little guy being wheeled out. Imagine my surprise and I knew exactly what it meant. It meant that there wasn't much found! The anesthesiologist told me that everything looked good on her end, but she was going to have to let the GI talk to me, but that it looked good.

Little M was brought to the PACU (because he was young) in order to recover. It took him longer to wake up this time around. The GI told me that his esophagus looked good and that we are at baseline for his eosinophilic esophagitis and that his colon was clean - no polyps. He apologized that we needed to do the colonoscopy based on his consult with the expert when the other doctor told him that the polyp found in small intestine was juvenile polyp, but at least now we know he doesn't have it. Thank you, GOD!  We have to continue dealing with the EOE but at least we have no 2nd problem to worry about.

We won't know his eosinophilic white blood cell counts from the biopsies until our follow up visit and at that time the GI said we have a lot to talk about. Having researched Eosinophilic Esophagitis, Daddy and I already know what we want to do. We are going ahead with food trials based on food avoidance of the top 6-8 food allergies. We have come this far to leave Little M with a "patch" solution. He can eat whatever wants with the current medication but it is not a long term answer. We need to do our best to identify what his body is rejecting in order to avoid whatever it is/they are. Based on others who are going through this terrible disease, we will find many hiccups but we have to remain positive. 

Saturday, December 28, 2013

pre-k class concert

Little M's class had a mini concert for the holidays as their Christmas party. They sang a few songs. Little M was a little wiggly and pulled his hat down his whole face. Thankfully one of the teachers came and fixed it. On this video, you hear "Hey!" loudly. That's my boy.