A New Year, A New Purpose

Well, hello there! For those of you who don't know who I am, I am wilsonsmom. Simply put, my son is Wilson, monster, booger, etc. He is a fantastic little two year old who happens to be allergic to LOTS and LOTS of things (peanuts, tree nuts, milk, egg, soy, bananas, peas, beef, oats, barley, corn, potatoes, shellfish, legumes, dogs, and cats.) We are currently working with some of the top doctors in the country to find a reason for all of the allergies and more importantly to help our little man have the most normal way of life possible.

Lots of my previous posts have been in regard to this, but from here on out, I will be blogging exclusively about him, doctors appointments, therapies, and what God is doing in our lives to show is His power. This is the easiest thing we can do to let you all know what is happening, how Wilson is doing, and how we are. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful support system and people who love us, but it often overwhelms us to wonder who we've told what, who we've called, etc. This doesn't mean some of you won't get personal updates, but this is much easier, especially after a difficult day like we had last week.

Last weekend, we went to a friend's graduation party, without Wilson. As we were introduced to their friends, they gave our names, as well as "They're Wilson's parents." At this point, someone said, "Wait, this is the boy everyone fasted for, right?" and it made me realize that at one point, I had an amazing way for people to know about who we are, who God is, and how we are doing all at the same time. And I let that go, because I'm lazy and didn't use that opportunity. So here goes nothing.

Wilson was born a pretty normal, slightly chubby boy with bright blue eyes and a head full of black curly hair (which I LOVED and miss so much!) Everything was pretty normal for the first four months, until he started vomiting and stopped gaining weight. Let me clarify what this means, because this was key. He gained nothing for several months, and with infants, it's crucial for babies to gain weight; it's how they monitor their health and development. When we went to the pediatrician, they informed us that they wanted to run some tests and check for allergies.

I had heard of peanut allergies more and more lately, especially with my job (I'm a hairstylist,) so I was mindful of that, and I even considered that he might be allergic to our precious dog. When we got back the blood work, we were told he was allergic to peanuts, milk, eggs, wheat, and dogs. Bye bye Makella and peanuts from our lives, my favorite food and our first "baby." What a blow, but we held on.

My brother in law graduated from basic training in September 2007, and we were lucky enough to get to go, and travel on standby for next to nothing, and decided it probably wouldn't be safe for him to tag along, so my mom and sister helped watch him for the three days we were gone. Let me tell you, those were a tough few days away, but now I know why God allowed us to have that time. It was the beginning of the downward spiral that was our lives. After we picked him up from my sisters, I noticed he was pulling to breathe, and asked my sister about it, who told me it had just started minutes earlier. I tried to wait it out until the next morning, and called the pediatrician, who wanted to see him immediately. We started running more tests, and after about six weeks of looking for everything else that could be wrong, we discovered he was allergic to tree nuts, soy (the SOY formula he was on,) bananas, peas, and cherries.

Our lives changed again, watching everything we gave him and what we ate. After some pushing, I called an allergist, who told us it was safe to eat peas, cherries, and wheat. (I've blogged about this in the past.) Last spring we tested again after having a lot of health problems with him, and found peas were a bad allergy, as were cats. Then, this fall (past blogs cover this as well) we found out about oats, barley, corn, potatoes, and beef.

He told us to call Children's Hospital GI department, and look into a disease called EE (Eosinophilic Esophagitis.) We had our first appointment Monday, January 5 at the hospital with a GI, speech pathologist, and nutritionist. After our visit, my husband and I felt like we left with more questions than answers. The GI wants to run a new baseline of allergies to see exactly what he can and can not tolerate, because at this point, he is developing allergies to everything he eats, but with avoidance seems to be able to heal from them. We will be seeing a world-renowned allergist for this, and are just waiting (as patiently as possible) for an appointment with him. The most difficult thing is we wait for them to call us. If I don't hear from them by Friday or Monday, I do get to call their office. (I choose FRIDAY!) We will also be seeing numerous other specialists to ensure he gets better as quickly as possible.

So that's where we are. We also have a meeting next Tuesday with a therapist who will be helping to get to the bottom of his sensory issues (he bites everything he can, especially his friends) and hopefully his eating problems, since he's starting to lose weight again. Through all of this, though, we are trying to keep our eyes on the future and know that God has this all figured out already, we just have to wait for Him to give us answers.