My sweet Luke

Disclaimer about this post -

If we have talked at all in the last week, most of this will be information you already know. The purpose of this post is to begin documenting the journey we might find ourselves taking. Ten years from now, if Luke says, "how did this all start?" I can point him here.

Saturday, March 1st

The journey begins (maybe) - Luke is feeling sickly most of the day and finally throws up. He feels reasonably better the next day or two, with the occasional complaint of stomach pain.

Tuesday, March 4th -Wednesday, March 5th

Luke functions normally but complains pretty regularly about his stomach hurting. At night, he is awakened several times crying about his stomach.

Thursday, March 6th

I call the doctor and ask whether or not Luke's seemingly constant stomach pain should be checked out. They agree it should and Scott takes him in. He has blood drawn and is instructed to produce a urine sample and a stool sample. They tell us the lab work should be back by the following Tuesday!

Friday, March 7th

Luke is pretty much just lying around at this point - not much energy, lots of complaining about his belly. Friday night was possibly one of the worst nights of our lives in the sleeping department. I know we weren't, but it seemed like we were up all night long. I remember begging him to go to sleep with me as I saw the sun beginning to come up!! In addition to the pain, he would literally kick and thrash around the bed, sometimes ending up at the foot of the bed. It was almost like he was having a night terror - totally out of his head!!

Saturday, March 8th

I called the doctor back to see if there was anything I could give him for his pain, since the Motrin didn't seem to be helping much. Because of an amazing God, Luke's doctor was working that Saturday and I didn't have to retrace the whole situation with a new nurse. She pulled his initial lab work report and said that I needed to come back in to the office because his labs were suspicious and that they were suggesting that he might have diabetes!! Wow!! That seemed a little crazy to be telling me over the phone, but I promised her I would bring him in!

When we got there, Dr. C explained why he thought diabetes might be an issue, but also said that his lab work wasn't a fasting lab, so the results might be different if Luke had fasted before the blood was taken. He did another quick check in the office and his blood sugar came back within normal ranges.

The other part of his lab work that wasn't good was his Tissue Transglutaminase Antibodies and his Gliadin Antibodies. The first was a 77 on a normal scale of 0-8. The second one was a 43 on a scale of 0-17. This was highly suggestive of Celiac Disease. Dr. C promised to call the GI doctor first thing on Monday and let me know how quickly we could get in to see him. In the meantime, we should take anything containing wheat out of Luke's diet until we saw the GI doctor.

As an aside, Luke decided that our time in the doctor's office would be a good time to go ahead and leave that stool sample!! I could do a whole different post on that, but I might lose at least 1 of my 4 loyal readers!! (I'm talking to you Deneise!!) Suffice it to say that was an experience like no other!!

So, we set out to find something for lunch that was gluten free and after much thought and deliberation, we ended up at Taco Bueno where I got Luke a small side order of chicken! Yummy! We did no gluten for the rest of the day and Sunday. Sunday proved to be a great day for Luke - little to no pain.

Monday, March 10th

Dr. C calls this morning after he spoke with Dr. O. Dr. O feels like there is a 90% chance that Luke does have Celiac Disease but, of course, wants to see him! He miraculously squeezes us in on Tuesday afternoon. Dr. C also tells me to put Luke back on wheat products. Even though it might make his pain return, he should eat even more wheat than normal! Excellent!! Luke feels great pretty much all day Monday and enjoys eating pretty much whatever he wants!!

I think this is getting too long!! I will finish later with the appointment with Dr. O and where we are currently in the waiting game!