Rachel's Appointment

Yesterday was our appointment at Texas Children's Hospital with Dr. G. We headed out at 5:30 in the morning, and other than the usual flopping around when trying to get dressed, Rachel did really well. Carlton and Timothy went with us and he did really well too. They both fell asleep on the way there of which I was glad.

I was so glad when we got there that Carlton had decided to come with me. Fannin Street, which runs in front of the hospitals, was blocked off with fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars! We needed to go down that street to get to another street that would take us to parking garage #16. Now, if you knew me really well you would know that this would normally set me in a panic! Carlton had the navigation on his new phone turned on so it recalculated the route, but everywhere it told us to go to get to the address we were given was blocked off. SO, we had to park several blocks away in a garage down in front of Methodist Hospital. Now, if I had been by myself and this had happened..........it would have gotten ugly...........but I had my "boy" there to help me!

Anyway, we found our way to one of the buildings marked as Texas Children's and I immediately found a receptionist and got directions to where we needed to be and we were there within a couple minutes! :) Then the next "disaster" happened! I had left my little thingy that holds all my credit cards and insurance cards and everything like that AT HOME!!!!! But at this time it was not really a BIG deal...I just turned to my man and asked him for his.........That is when it became a big deal!!!!!!!! (honetly this time it was only a big deal to me and not him....suprisingly!)

He looked at me and told me that his was in the truck. I looked at the receptionist and asked if we could just send in the payment and she said that they would not see us if we didn't pay first! SO, Carlton looked at me and asked me what the name of the garage was that we parked in and I told him. Then he quietly headed toward the elevators grinning and shaking his head. I knew what he was thinking....."if I hadn't come this whole situation would have just gotten ugly!" AND he was RIGHT. I just don't handle that kind of stress very well! Then when my man came back he was carrying....STARBUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it!! You don't understand.....he thinks that place is nothing but a rip off. He just smiled and said, "Just remember who takes care of you!"

Anyway, for the part you all were really wondering about.....we finally got in to see the doctor. We sat and talked to him for about an hour....no kidding....we talked to him for about an hour about Rachel's diet, eating habits, exercise, behaviors....everything. Then he told us that he does not believe that it is an acid problem and told me to stop giving her the Previcid. He said that he believes that it is a bowel issue related to the consumption of sugar. We had already told him that we don't let them have a lot of sugary foods on a regular basis. Then he pointed out that with all the "holiday" foods that she has had in the past several months, since around Halloween, that she has had more sugar in her diet than usual for her. Therefore, causing much more discomfort.

We talked about how when she was about 18 months old we had a similar discussion about her. When he saw her then he basically cut out her apple juice and told me to giver her white grape juice if she wanted juice since it has less sugar, and then I had to put her on Lactaid milk. We did what he said then and the problem we were having (a severly distended belly) went away. But at that time, she was still on a pretty "parent guided" diet. Now she can pick and choose what she wants, in a lot of cases (church, daycare....). He stressed the importance of making sure she eats ALL the vegetables on her plate. He said we didn't have to make her eat everything else, but we needed to make sure she eats all her veggies........makes sense doesn't it! He said that he wants me to monitor the foods she eats, keep a log, to see how much sugar she is actually taking in daily.

Then he wants me to watch her poop! Yes her poop! He wants me to feed her something like corn, since it is not digestable, and see how long it takes it to come out. He said the normal passage of corn would be no longer than 24 hours. This would help him to determine more about her bowels. He said that a person could poop everyday and still be constipated. He told us about a patient he had one time that he diagnosed as being constipated and the parents acted as if he was crazy. He told them to feed her some corn and to let him know when it passed. So they did and 9 days later they called very concerned since the corn had NOT passed! They had to do some procedures on the poor child and now things are fine he says. He did not think this was the case with my little princess, but wants us to monitor that a few times to make sure.

Well, that's about it! Monitor her sugar intake and her poop and we will see if this makes a difference. IF it doesn't then we will make another appointment to discuss what's next. But if he believes this is the problem, then so do I. I have seen this man's "work" on some of my severly handicapped students in the past, and I trust him fully because of it!

Just keep her and us in your prayers. We are about to make some big changes in our diets at home. It will probably bother the little people in our house the most, but it might be an inconvience for the big people every now and then. But living healthier trumps a little inconvience!