Torture Sasha

That's what the allergist said in so many words.  Since there's a "mind-boggling" range of gluten sensitivities ranging from mild to celiac, and since the scratch test doesn't test for those (yeah thanks) he said to keep her clear of gluten for 3 months, and then start seeing how much she can handle, if any.  Which means slowly reintroducing gluten into her diet until symptoms start showing back up.  Because "Maybe she can handle a sandwich a week."  If she can't handle any, he gave me the name of one of the top Pediatric GI/Celiac specialists in the country, who happens to be in town.  Not that you can do anything besides eliminate gluten, just for more info if I should want it.

1. My allergists doesn't know what boggles my mind, and certainly it isn't the range of gluten sensitivities present in the human population.  More like the fact that I had a huge migraine and was on a lot of drugs when we had the appointment and I forgot to ask for a blood test.  Actually, that doesn't boggle my mind either, that just pissed me off.  What truly boggles my mind is the amount of work I'll have to do to get back in to the dang office to request a blood test to seriously rule out allergy before I start torturing Sasha.

2. Corn.  I'm on my own.  The allergist when he was studying in the 70s and 80s learned that corn allergy was tricky and not well understood.  He studied a case where a kid would present symptoms one day and not the next.  Sasha's scratch test came up negative, but a day or two after getting corn products, she gets symptoms.  He recommended I keep her clear of corn for a month and then slowly reintroduce and see what happens. O.M.G.

Why do I want to give Sasha small amounts of something that makes her sick?  So that when the butt and face rash shows up and I'll know she had one cracker too many the day before? So she can be miserable and whiny and throw super-fits just for convenience sake?  It will be good to know if xanthan gum is ok to have every day but another thing that boggles my mind is the amount of GMO corn products hidden in our food.  Ever notice that almost everything has "natural flavor" in it?  That's probably MSG and genetically modified (GMO) corn products!  And they don't have to tell you, because the FDA has deemed it safe and "Natural".  Ugh.  But at times, with these migraines, I've been so frustrated that I'd trade food allergies for msg, and take peace of mind with GMO corn products in everything.  In pain and extremely limited sucks.

At least we have an allergist-approved torture plan with a time-frame, a straw to grasp in this ocean of unknowns.  And I've taken no pain meds in 2 days, and managed a few minutes of yoga today.  I don't even know how motivated I am to reclaim my motivation, my joie de vivre, but I know that doing nothing isn't doing anything for me.  Not that doing anything has helped either...quite a fix I'm in really. I do know that my kids are pretty dang awesome, and I'm their only Mom.  On to tomorrow then!