Life has been a bit chaotic recently to say the least! Lately I am not sure if I am coming or going and just when I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel.. wham! LOL I know that "this too shall pass" and I am hoping that a good night's sleep tonight will help brighten my spirits.

We heard from Layla's Boston Dr. again the other night as he had called to let us know that he sat down with the pathologist to go over the biopsy results. The biopsies did show that there was microscopic infection however, it also showed that her intestine was regenerating (making new cells). This means that her intestine is healing itself. Therefore he feels as though she had some sort of intestinal infection that has taken her system a long time to recover from, but she is recovering. Though this is how he feels, he also wants to rule out a few more things such as a parasite or an immune system disorder. These tests will probably get done the beginning of next week and thus hopefully we can rule them out. I felt good after talking to him the other night. However, that being said, I am not wholeheartedly sold on this idea. There is something in me that keeps telling me I should push for the colonoscopy. I dont know what or why or anything more than it is this little voice inside my head. I dont want to overreact so I am trying to ignore it, but at the same time I dont want to under react and have the situation get worse. What to do? She still isnt acting right and literally screamed for 45 minutes this morning. Then she had a BM and she was fine? Do not read anymore if you get grossed out but the BM was black and tar like? On Sunday she had one that literally looked like grey clay? I have a call into my Pediatrician to discuss test results and whatnot and I am thinking about bouncing the colonoscopy thing off her and see what she has to say. Furthermore, Layla has a nasty cold and she is just miserable on top of everything else, although I did finally get her to go down for a nap! That's a plus!

Dr. Verhave also wanted her to have a food allergy skin test done which we did yesterday. (Not so much fun) If you remember, she had the blood tests done to show allergies and they showed that she was allergic to soy (moderately) and peanut (moderately) and it was also certain that she had the milk protein allergy as well. Yesterday's results showed that yes indeed she is allergic to soy moderately as well as oats (who knew?) but that the peanut allergy is severe. (Can you imagine if I hadn't done this testing?) Severe enough that the doctor felt as though when we had the incident back at Halloween, that she never actually ingested the peanut butter because if she had, he felt as though we would have been in a more severe of a situation. So if her face and lips blew up and welted just from touching it, can you imagine if she ingested it? SCARY! It's easy to keep grips on it at home because we are a peanut free home, but this could get a bit tricky when she is in other people's care and when she is school age. I know I'll be a basket case about it. Needless to say we have the Epi pen on us at all times.

This is what her back looked like after the testing. The smaller swollen area is the histamine that is supposed to be what they check the others against... The huge one is the peanut. Much larger than the histamine. The nurse actually said it was off the charts.

I am glad to announce that Miss Hannah seems to be healthy these days. She has taken a liking to scrapbooking and has begun to scrapbook pictures of her and her daddy from their father and daughter dance she had. I have to say, she is pretty good at it. Give the kid a pair of scissors and let her go to town! I will add that every time I put them in her hands I have to give her the speal about how if she touches her hair with them I am shaving her head. Her teacher told me again this week that Hannah is a pleasure to have in class and I am grateful that she saves her antics for home, rather than school.. HA! She is also still faithfully wearing her furry boots to school and has not given me a problem since I bought them. RELIEF! Problem solved! Soon enough the Spring will be here and she can wear her flowy dresses and flip flops and the harmony will be restored in our household!


On a down note, what's bugging me the most this week is that my dearest and bestest friend Skip suffered from a grand mal seizure on Sunday. Getting this call really knocked me for a loop. He had an "episode" back in December during the night yet it was never actually confirmed to be a seizure. So this whole situation is extremely scary. I thank the heavens above that his wife was home. Although I am sure he took a good 5 years off her life and I truly cant imagine how scary this was for her to witness. I am so grateful he wasnt alone. His neurologist is saying that he is most likely out of work for at least 6 months and he is not allowed to watch his daughter alone, drive, or do anything alone for that matter. This is pure torture for any human being. Yet if you knew Skip, this is beyond pure torture for him. I feel helpless and lost. I keep frantically trying to find a way to make this all better but the truth of the matter is that there IS no way to make this better. We just have to pray that he can get answers, and pray that the answers will allow him to lead a somewhat normal life and allow him to live a long life. We have been through the good, the bad and the ugly as friends and I pray that this is just another bump in the road. My head is spinning and if I go into any further how this affecting me then I'll lose it, so I will end it there. Please keep Skip and his family in your prayers in this time of need! I will update soon.