Matthan's Progress

We went yesterday to the Naturopath.  We have been on the GFCF diet now for 3 weeks and had in mind to go over with the dr. the changes we observed in Matthan (which in fact were not many) as well as go over his blood work results.

 Shall we do the good news first??  The good news is, he tested negative for celiac disease, as well as gilberts syndrome (gilberts syndrome is a low count of bilirubin and runs in Jair’s family – Jair has this as well as an aunt of his), his sugar levels were good.  His kidneys and liver are functioning properly. 

The “bad” news…Matthan has a low count of red and white blood cells.  His red blood cells are enlarged.  Before I go into more detail, the dr. said he overall looks healthy.  With a low count of red blood cells he is anemic and low on iron.  This could explain the circle under his eyes.  I had been watching for those to lessen in the last 3 weeks thinking they were due to food allergy, but it could be his iron levels.  So, hopefully in the coming 3 weeks those will begin to clear up.  With a low level of white blood cells it means he bruises easily – which is so true, he’s got bruises all over and sometimes I’m like “what did you do?” they look awful.  As well with his white blood cells usually your blood cells are in a 60/40 split, 60% is fighting with your immune system, like when you get a bug, a cold, flu, etc…and 40% fights chronic illness.  Well, his white blood cells are 30/70 split, 30% fight his immune system and 70% fight chronic illness – so he is constantly fighting something.  My poor baby!  I have to not weaken and feel sorry for him or me, I have to keep pressing on to try and help him feel better.  Lord, help me!  More, to the facts…Matthan also shows some pretty high levels of heavy metals in his body.  There are treatments for this known as chelation and over the course of time; you slowly draw out the metals in his body.  How does he get those heavy metals there?  It is from vaccines, some drinking waters (or tap waters), and I can’t remember if she said anywhere else – those were the 2 I recall. So, maybe in the future we will work with this, but first we will try to tackle the diet J  He also, may need to have some vitamin B12 shots.  I’m not entirely sure how this is helpful, although I have read that it often does help children with ASD (autism spectrum disorders).  I do think it’s to improve your overall red blood cells.  And you can often get it from food, but at this point with his diet his intake of B12 will be minimal.  So, that too is one of those things we may work on in the future.  Matthan was low in vitamin D and actually all my children probably are with living here!  He also showed low cholesterol, and while for us adults that sounds good, but cholesterol actually feeds the neurotransmitters and so he kind of needs “all he can get” so we won’t be shy with him in using the fats.  Now, to the food allergy testing….We had a food allergy test done for him, which was pretty expensive (we were blessed by a generous family member who paid for it) and I was pretty excited to see the results.  Although, they are not what I expected and I think my world of cooking just got a bit harder and more challenging!  He is allergic to:

Milk

Whey

Beef

Eggs

Cranberries

All Citrus Fruits

Gluten

Soy

Peanuts

The milk and the beef he reacts to immediately as with the others he will show a reaction later - a day to a week later.  I’m thankful that he didn’t show positive allergy to casein, cheese, yogurt, or goats milk.  And over time we will slowly add those things into hid diet one by one.  I’m bummed that he can’t have beef (he really likes it) especially steak!  And for me, I’m bummed that he can’t have eggs, or soy because really those are also in a lot of things!  So, cooking healthy and creative just got harder again!  And for peanuts – oh man he loves his peanut butter.  So, yesterday I picked up some almond butter and hope that he will like it.  One of the great things about Matthan is he really is pretty flexible. So, now for the next 3 weeks we will be cutting out his entire allergy foods and see how that goes.  Jair thinks he wants to do it too, because he is a lot like Matthan and maybe Jair will benefit from the diet change.  We’ll see.

We continue to pray for the Lord’s leading in all of this; His wisdom and His discernment on how best to help Matthan.  It has been a very expensive venture thus far and it will continue to be so we also pray for His provision.  The Lord is always faithful to provide for us.  

 Ma