Jayden goes to the allergist

We took my son to the allergist the other day, and if the poor kid hasn't been through enough, he received 18 skin pricks. Thankfully skin pricks are not so bad if they are done in the arm. He had to sit still and promise that he wouldn't itch which was far harder than the little pricks. Turns out the skin pricking showed that he is not allergic to wheat, soy, or peanuts. What? Why did the blood test show one thing and the skin pricking show another?? Well, that means that we don't have to do the gluten-free diet after all. Unfortunately, for this gluten-eating-and-loving-it family, since going gluten-free Jayden's night time horrors have been cut dramatically in half. We started August 17th gluten-free, and by the night of the 20th, we went from four solid hours of dry heaving and burping to two. Plus we made a huge financial commitment to it so we will stick it out until Jayden heals. The allergist warned me that could be anywhere from 6 weeks to a year! 


I don't know if I can take a year of this, or even 6 more weeks. I'm out of my element on the gluten-free cooking. I don't find it fun at all. And it is expensive. With all the food restrictions, we have very foods left, gluten-free or otherwise to feed our son. It is one thing to live like this at home. It's totally different when you walk out the door. School is coming soon, my son will walk out the door with a lunch sack five days a week. What will we put in there? What happens if a kid has a birthday at school and brings some yummy gluten chocolate thing. And it's not the gluten that will do him in at all, but the chocolate. Or the class has a pizza party with forbidden tomato sauce on it?? I am so frustrated. All I want to do at this point is find a way to feed my son, and have him feel like he is going to be okay.

I know when I write the words acid refux or burping, it sounds almost like a joke. But the burps aren't like the ones you have sitting at the dinner table, or after you drink a can of soda or beer. They are forceful and can't be controlled and they cause Jayden pain. They start with his stomach whirling like a tornado. I tried counting them a while back. There were so many I lost count several times. He burps about 40 times in ONE MINUTE.  That means there are two THOUSAND, four hundred of them in one hour and 9600 for the four hours that he has been enduring. It's awful. They stop when he's so exhausted that he finally falls asleep. And we are so exhausted too. The allergist, while he was more knowledgeable about acid reflux in general, and did agree the Advil caused these events, was no help at all. The next thing on our agenda is to take Jayden to the Children's hospital and go to a pediatric gastroenterologist. All this because we gave him Children's Advil.

Right now, I am very overwhelmed and I'm very tired. I am grateful to God that he is experiencing less of the reflux at night. I pray we keep moving in the right direction. Thanks all for keeping up with us.