OUR HOUSE IS A MEDICAL MYSTERY

Well maybe not so much a mystery. Not even a marvel. More of a pain in the proverbial ass (and the not so proverbial one).

I promised I'd give you all an update on Kierra. So we went to see the doc on Saturday about her last test results. It surprisingly came back normal! Don't get me wrong, I'm happy!! But I can't say I'm not a little surprised. And so was the doctor since a majority of autistic kids show strange levels of bacterias and yeasts in their digestive system. This only means A) we don't have to contend with this and B) now when I give her digestive enzymes, they will actually work for her. To re-cap, the digestive enzymes allow her at times to eat "normal" foods without the effects it usually produces. And to answer the question no, you can't just give her those every meal and let her eat what she wants. It's more or less a fail safe in those cases where there is no other option. So if we want to go out to a restaurant one Sunday, she pops one 1/2 hour before she eats, and presto - she doesn't have any problems with it!!!

So at this point, we are just supplementing her diet with some omega 3 pills (which taste like strawberry - not fishy!). In January, we'll have her fatty and amino acids tested to see if she's absorbing them properly. I'm willing to bet she does since it's unlikely now that she suffers from Celiac Disease and/or Leaky Gut Syndrome. There is three more tests to do. Two require urine tests: testing for neurotransmitter levels and the other for something I can't remember. Yeah that's right - I can't remember and I suck! The other is a blood test that checks the amino acids. We did discuss her "shinners" she's getting, and he theorizes that she's having an allergic reaction to something airborne (most likely in the classroom). That's all the insight he could offer.

Onto the family doctor: he also believes it's an airborne allergy and is referring us to an allergist. This will take God knows how long since where we live, we are overpopulated in people, underpopulated in physicians. I'll get back to why this is bothersome in a minute. After discussing the results from the Naturopathic doctor, my family doctor suggested Kierra go for additional allergy tests. Yes Kierra just had some but those only tested for the specific digestive allergies. She never had the standard environmental allergy test done. He then asked me if I believe in modern medicine. SHEESH! I'm not a crunchy, tree-hugger - I do believe in medicine! I guess he was wondering if I was going to protest and simply grind up bark or something to treat her. In any case, he is also ordering blood tests to check her liver, iron and other levels because he wants to see what those are doing. So I have to take her for a blood draw sometime ... I don't wanna! This will be insane and not good. But in the meantime, no one can do anything about the bouts with the eyes, so we just tough it out until the allergist becomes available.

Onto my husband. He had an appointment with the ENT (ear/nose/throat) guy last week. Actually this was a follow-up from the one he had six months before. Jarrett SNORES! Chain-saw snores. It's horrible! Before we left the states he was supposed to have surgery, but alas he didn't and we moved to Canada. We get here, and the new guy says "there's nothing wrong with you". Sigh - ok so why was he going for surgery in Michigan but here in Alberta, he's cured? Did the sound of music from the Rocky Mountains cure him? Hell no - because I listen to him grunting in his sleep! So this time I told Jarrett to insist on figuring this out. He actually told the doctor if he didn't fix the problem his wife was going to start cutting stuff out of his head in his sleep (not exactly inaccurate; those of you living with snorers know what I'm talking about!). He also snorts this spray up his nose every night so he doesn't develop sinus infections (which he has ALL the time). So he goes, and the same doctor tells him he has a deviated septum (which we knew), his adenoids are enlarged (which we knew), that his uvula is large (which we didn't know), and that he may need tubes in his ears (huh?). So he is on the wait-list for surgery to have two taken out, one fixed and something put in. The kicker: wait is about 8 months!!! This is what you get with universal health care. Sure it's non-discriminating but you pay for it in the wait times. Plus our doctors have to wait for OR scheduling, which means they can do a surgery but they can't pull a Dr. Nick Rivera and use a pizza cutter and do it in a back room in a bar. So until then, Jarrett has to get up about 2 times at night to drain his ears.

And to top it all off, Jenna's cold officially became my cold this morning. Even after I started to take those Cold FX pills (which are bullshit by the way). I got up this morning feeling like someone run over my head. Not a good feeling. Plus Kierra's therapist called in sick for a fever... just not a good day. The thought of going out today to drive them to school erks me. I just want to sit in my jammies all day long! WAH!!!! At least Jarrett is back from his business trip; although he'll just be snoring alongside me at night with his flappy uvula and crooked septum.

Wish us well in the house of germs and medical woes!