Hopefully heading down the right path!

Well, I called Dr. G's office this morning and her receptionist attempted to tell me Hayden couldn't be seen for another 2 weeks. I threw a huge fit, made her call the doctor personally and they squeezed us in this afternoon. Normally I would have just agreed to wait, but I am not doing that anymore. It's time to stand up for Hayden and get him the care he needs for his poor little tummy. At our appointment, Dr. G looked him over and said except for the fact that he hasn't gained weight since she saw him 8 months ago (he's still 26 pounds), his tummy felt ok to the touch and he sounded fine. She ordered a complete lab workup on him including tests for 20 food allergies, a Celiac's disease test (for a gluten allergy), and lots of tests for his blood cells and vitamins and such. She explained that if those tests come back positive for the allergies, it will tell us how severe they are and how much we have to cut out. If they are negative, we will go to a Gastroenterologist because she isn't happy about him having so much diharrea. She said that a child his size can't be losing all of his nutrients like that for much longer because it will make him ill. Dr. G thinks that he has the dairy allergy and some sort of other allergy that is lurking with it, still causing random symptoms even though he is eating dairy-free. We also got Hayden's FluMist vaccine while we were at it. That thing is wonderful...just 2 little puffs of nasal spray and he's covered for the regular flu. We will definitely be getting the H1N1 vaccine next month as well. She said the results of the blood test will take a week so we decided to head to the lab...

I have never seen a Dr.'s office with no magazines, no toys, no books and no tv to entertain the patients! I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked in the lab office and saw chairs and only chairs. Thank god I am an over-prepared parent because we would have been in serious meltdown mode after a few minutes. We passed the hour wait by playing with cars and talking to some sweet old ladies whom Hayden won over by showing them his cars. He didn't care that he didn't know these women at all...He went on and on about what he had done today and his new fish, etc. The ladies all got sad when they called our name to go to the back. I think he really brightened up the lab visit for some sweet elderly women who don't get to interact with children all too much. Once we got to the back, I was informed that the Dr. ordered 6 vials of blood (6, seriously?) but the lab tech said based on his weight she wouldn't take more than 3...so guess who gets to go back Thursday for 3 more. I think it was harder on me to be honest. I felt so bad holding him down with him sobbing "No, don't poke me lady." I had that mother instinct of wanting to pull the needle out of the lady's hand and run out of there, but I stuck with it and we got it done. I'm really not happy about having to go back, but he took it very well the first time, so I am hoping the same for the return visit. A few minutes after the visit, we drove to go pick up Matt at work and Hayden fell asleep right away. I am guessing the blood draw just knocked him out. Wish us luck for Thursday. I am just so ready to figure this out and not see him throw up anymore. Hoefully we are on the way there!