Wow, that was rough

I ended my evening by eating gluten-free cookies and drinking dessert wine.  It was wonderful to veg on the couch in front of the television accompanied by my two favorite vices: cookies and wine.  Sadly, the gluten-free cookies I made out of the box were disappointing.  Luckily wine is gluten-free so at least one of my favorite things is staying the same.  I have not had a need for a night like this for a while.  Grated, it was tough when I was in pain. However, I had narcotics to bring me some relief.  Thus, the gluttonous evenings were averted.  However, tonight my pain is more emotional, which makes it much more difficult assuage. 

We had Panda Girl's well child visit today.  Normally these are relatively uneventful trips to the doctor.  Dr. Alex asked me if I had any concerns.  I mentioned that Panda Girl is still needing her reflux meds twice a day.  We have tried taking her off of them several times in her short life, but have never been successful.  She is always miserable off the meds, thus making her parents miserable in the process.  Most children outgrow reflux by about six months of age.  Sweet Pea was about fourteen months when she was finally able to be taken off her medication.  So, I had not been worried until recently. 

Dr. Alex agreed that mine was a valid concern.  He had a couple suggestions of tests we had not run on her yet.  He wanted to do a blood test for food allergies and celiac.  I almost fell out of my chair in that moment.  I had not yet mentioned my current gluten-free status.  I sat there staring at him for a moment.  Then I pulled it together and mentioned my recent issues.  Then he stunned me: our pediatrician has celiac disease.  He went  on to suggest the best brands of foods and the most gluten-friendly restaurants he had found in his two years of living with his diagnosis.  He also assured me it was well worth the sacrifice because he feels much better.  I was relieved to find someone I know and trust with my disease.  While I am not close friends with this man, I do feel that if I had any questions he would be more than happy to answer them for me.  I do not believe in coincidences, so I feel blessed that God guided me to him over four years ago when we were searching for a doctor for Sweet Pea. 

After more discussion around Panda Girl's development, he sent me off to get blood work done on both girls (he recommended testing Sweet Pea for celiac as well).  It wasn't until the nurses called us into a separate room from the in-house lab that I realized this was going to be much harder than I expected.  They needed to collect at least one full vial of blood from each little lady.  Not fun.  I had Sweet Pea go first because I thought she would be better able to calm down quickly after the trauma.  The nurses found her vein quickly and we had her off the table and away from the offending needle in record time.  She calmed down pretty quickly, but she is Sweet Pea so she was dramatic about the whole situation.  At that point I hoped the worst was over.  Oh was I wrong.

I picked up a worried Panda Girl and placed her on the table.  She started to cry, but she did lie down for me.  The nurses then proceeded to search for a vein they could use.  They had no luck with the right arm.  They suggested trying the left arm instead.  So we proceeded with the left arm.  Sadly Panda Girl is tiny and her veins like to be "slippery".  Apparently slippery means we had to torture Panda Girl to get any blood from her.  She never flinched.  She stayed still.  She cried, but she was amazingly brave as the nurse dug around in her arm for that evasive vein.  In the end we hoped we got enough blood.  We may have to go back, but I didn't want to traumatize her any more than necessary.  We went back to the lab where she did have to have a needle stick to have a CBC, but it was over quickly and she was proudly carrying around her lollipop when we left. 

At home I treated the little ladies to a lunch of greek yogurt with chocolate chips added as a fun treat.  I also spoiled them with some chocolate milk.  After they were in bed for their naps my phone rang.  The nurse at Dr Alex's office needed the phone number of the pharmacy I use.  Evidently, Panda Girl is anemic.  Sigh.  Fantastic.  Now in addition to her twice daily prevacid doses, she needs iron supplementation.  We will start that tomorrow.  Poor baby.

Since Panda Girl needed so much attention today, Sweet Pea threw several temper tantrums and refused to go to bed tonight.  Thus, by the end of the day I was done.  I could barely look at Sweet Pea without wanting to yell at her and I could barely look at Panda Girl without wanting to cry.  Therefore, in lieu of the yelling and the crying I chose wine and cookies.  While not the best choice for my waistline, it was the best choice for my psyche.