Ummmm.... what?

Thats what my brain is saying right now. I would be lying if I said I didn't sit here for probably eight minutes staring into space trying to think of where to start. When I woke up this morning, I was in no way prepared for Savannah's doctor visit. This kid is no stranger to doctors' offices (yep, she got my genes there) and I didn't give it a whole lot of thought. I was kinda relieved that today was the day we would get answers, and kinda dreading the whole visit because I figured at some point it would involve a needle and thats never a good thing.

Well, four hours later, we don't have any answers yet, but we do have a very awesome doctor with very big concerns for our very little girl.

Here is what we DO know:
1. Savannah has lost a pound and a half this month and is almost back to what she weighed at 12 months old.
2. Savannah's belly is very distended (I knew her belly stuck out even though she is underweight, but I never considered that a symptom).
3. Savannah does not eat the amount of a normal 18-month-old (once again, I knew she didn't eat much but thought she just "ate like a bird" and didn't realize that was a symptom either).
4. Savannah has almost never had a normal bowel movement.
5. The blisters on Savannah's bottom are not healing like they should be.

Here is what we are trying to find out:
1. Does Savannah have a food allergy?
2. Is Savannah lactose intolerant or allergic to milk products (including cheese, yogurt, etc)?
3. Is Savannah's digestive system itself functioning right (are the bowels normal, does her digestive system produce enough enzymes, etc)?
4. Does she have a parasite or white blood cells in her stool?
5. Does she have celiac disease?
6. Does she have cystic fibrosis?

As I was standing in the doctor's office, I felt like all of the medical terms and questions were coming at me faster than I could even focus on. I had barely processed enzymes and white blood cells and then suddenly we're talking about celiac disease and cystic fibrosis? What? Slow down! Unfortunately doctor's offices don't schedule time in their day for you to process info and they just load you up with it and push you out the door.

What we are going to do now:
1. Savannah will take an appetite stimulant three times per day.
2. Savannah will take a multivitamin.
3. Savannah will take pro-biotics to put good bacteria in her stomach (like in yogurt).
4. We will keep a food diary.
5. We will collect five stool samples the next time that she has an episode and take them to the hospital lab.
6. On Thursday, we will go to the hospital to have a test done to rule out cystic fibrosis. The procedure is to thoroughly hydrate her, put patches on her skin, then get her nice and hot to make her sweat, then get some kind of test results from the patches on her skin that collect her sweat. It will probably take a few hours to complete - but no needles or pain!
7. We will meet back with the pediatric gi doctor and a nutritionist in four weeks to discuss the next steps. If all of these tests are not conclusive, they will then put her to sleep at the hospital and look at the inside of her tummy with a scope to make sure everything is working correctly and we'll go from there.
8. Today we went to the hospital and they drew two huge vials of blood to do several allergy/lactose tests (THANK YOU, GRAM-B for being the trooper and holding Savannah down while I stood in the hall about to fall to pieces!). Savannah did great from what I hear, but if you know me and blood, we don't mix well, and I stood outside during that process.

Hello? Are you feeling like I'm feeling right now? I was SO NOT PREPARED for this! Hospital? Labs? Put her to sleep? WHAT?! Maybe I was insane going in there, but I really thought they would say something like... oh this looks like a dairy allergy - cut all of the dairy out of her diet for a month and then come back and we'll see how things are going. But instead they said, "This looks very serious and we need to get to the bottom of it - which we WILL do. Your concerns are very valid and I share them completely. We will solve this mystery."

I am very comforted that she has a fabulous doctor who took me very seriously and will leave no stone unturned - but I guess I'm just processing it all. I am also super thankful to Darren's mom for going with me. I thought she was going to help entertain Savannah - but God knew that I would need someone else to listen to the doctor and be a moral support to me, too! I was reminded by MckMama's blog when I checked on little Stellan... nothing takes God by surprise. NOTHING! He made Savannah, and He made Savannah's tummy, and He knows exactly what is wrong with it. And I'm so thankful (but still a little overwhelmed....)