Wednesday, August 6, 2008

One poop at a time.

Yesterday was Wes' appointment with the GI in Boston. We dropped Casey off with Nana and Auntie and we headed out. I was a little anxious because Boston traffic can be a nightmare and I didn't want to be late for our appointment. Luckily (and after a couple misses) we made it on time. The hospital was huge and a bit confusing. Multiple elevators later, we arrived.
Silly me didn't come as prepared as I should have. I only packed snacks and Wes' blanket. I brought the portable DVD player, but that was to play in the car. What was I thinking? Wes did relatively well. We only had to reprimand him twice for taking off down a hallway. It was 45 minutes between when our appointment actually was and when we were ushered into a room. Another (what seemed like a year) 5 minutes later, the doctor came in.
He was not really what I expected. He took the time to ask for the life and times of Wesley starting with birth. He asked us lots of questions and made sure to explain everything to us. I told him of my concerns and what I ultimately wanted to achieve coming to see him. I wanted to figure out Wes' bowel issues and correct them so he doesn't need medication for the rest of his life or until we get him to eat better. Which ever comes first. So our route was to test him for some common allergies and start from there. They are testing him for wheat, soy, casein, corn, strawberries, tomatoes, nuts, and that's all I can remember off the top of my head. Poor kid had 6 vials of blood drawn. He was not a happy camper and it took 3 phlebotamists and me to hold the child down. All in all, he was a trooper though. We'll be going back in 4 weeks to go over the results and decide our next step.
Someone recommended (not in his practice) that we have Wes tested for heavy metals. Again, I'm torn with this. I'm not sure if this Dr. would test for those and if he doesn't, that probably would mean going to a DAN! doctor. Both Tim and I are against chelation. We refuse to put our child through anything like that with the possibility of death just to change who he is. That's a tiraid for another day.
So that's that. Once we go to the follow up, I'll have more info to share.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

what is chelation? i've never heard of it. what does it do?

Jessica said...

Chelation (and those of you who know better can correct me) is the use of a chemical substance to bind molecules, such as metals or minerals, and hold them tightly so they can be removed from the body. The problem with chelation is that it can remove minerals from the body that are needed. These need to be replaced with supplements. Sometimes multiple supplements are needing to be replaced which means lots of pills and such. It can be deadly.

Casdok said...

Its sooo difficult getting blood, poor Wes.

I too am against chelation as children have died, so am relieved your not going down that road. :)

Cyndi said...

Matthew had blood taken on Friday and it was from hell...4 vials and 3 people to hold down a kid who's only 39 pounds but can hit/kick like a professional wrestler.

Re: chelation - I was like you...totally afriad of it until I spent about 6 months researching it. The famous case in which the child died was an IV chelation where the wrong drug was used (it had a similar name and was a human error)...it caused the child to have a heart attack. And believe me, Matthew has a hole in his heart so I wouldn't do this if I thought it would kill him! We'll be starting transdermal this month..it's a DMSA cream that we'll rub on his arms, feet or back for 2 weekends per month. It's the safest/slowest/lowest dose way to go. If he has any kind of reaction we will stop asap. Matthew tested positive for lead, mercury, antimony, arsenic, etc. I cannot leave those toxins in his body...they need to come out (in a safe manner).

And as far as supplements go, we started giving them to him in December so we'll only have to add one muti-mineral liquid to his juice (2 teaspoons/day). We use liquids and capsules (from Kirkman's) which I just break open and mix in his juice...it's really easy and he's so much healthier now.

sweetpeas said...

Wow I have never heard of chelation. That is a very scary choice to make, I agree. Did you go to Childrens?

Poor Wes having 4 people hold him down to take blood. I always make Mike go in with Carter to give blood. Im a whimp and I can not handle it. Go figure!

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