A Day Like Any Other

Well, it's been a while since my last post, I know. Life around here takes on a crazy theme once Spring springs into action. We have softball practices and games (for the two girls), lacrosse practices and games, and flag football practices and games. Not to mention, speech two days a week, piano lessons once a week, care group every other week, and small group leader meetings once a month, youth group twice a month. Oh my gosh, I am getting tired just typing all that out! I am sure I have forgotten a few things. The good news is that a lot of these things are coming to an end very soon! As much as I cant wait for them to get started in the late winter, I am just as excited for them to be over in the late spring. July will be pretty crazy this year, as Dillon will be playing for a travel lacrosse team. That means he will be traveling to other states (relatively close by) to play tournaments on the weekends.

As some of you might not know, Benjamin has been diagnosed with carbohydrate malabsorption. Basically, his body does not break double molecule sugars down at all, and in the small intestine enzymatic acids try to break them down but can't; so it passes into the large intestines where an enormous amount of acid and water flush out the undigested food. This causes acid like burning on Ben's little bummy. Not to mention the damage that gets done to the intestines from the over production of enzymatic acids. It's beginning to bother his belly now when he eats foods he shouldn't have. I am still in the education stages of this life long dietary issue but, so far, it looks very complicated! I can tell you that it's VERY difficult to control every thing that goes into his mouth. I mean, how do you tell a well meaning family member whom hasn't seen him is years "No you cant treat him with candy!" and "no you cant share your soda with him." and "No you can't take him out for ice cream." and "No he cant have those chips, or sandwich or hot dog or..." Just fill in the blank with whatever you eat that you would like to treat a child to and he can't have it! So I guess your next question would be..."what can he eat?" Well, not a lot. And pretty much nothing he likes to eat. I mean really how many eggs and hamburgers with out the bun can a person eat on a daily diet? He cant eat anything that's commercial dairy so I was forced to find a raw milk supply. That's NOT cheap! You'd think it would be considering there's no processing of the milk, right? Well, NO! It's $6.00 a gallon! $6.00 a gallon, are you KIDDING ME?!? So from that milk I can make raw milk yogurt. He likes yogurt. I am still in the trial stages of this milk to see if it will be ok for him to drink. I haven't gotten a true reading yet because SOME PEOPLE (not mentioning any names) keep giving him things he can't eat. So today was the 14th or 20th (maybe the 50th, who knows) time to start over being careful watching what he eats so I can know for sure what is working and what isn't working. So at this point you might be wondering "Hmm, if there's a diagnosis for this there must be a treatment for it. I wonder why she's beating her head off the wall trying all this random stuff?" Well the answer to that is quite simple. Yes, there is a treatment, it's called trial and error. At least that's what the dietitian at Children's Hospital told me. That's not at all what I expected to hear. I really thought they would give me a meal plan of some sort and a prescription for some type of medicine. Now at this point I almost with he had Celiac disease. That would be so much easier to treat!

That's all I'm going to dump on you for now. Believe me there is MUCH more going on here than just that. Like Dave's liver issues, my brother's wife passes away, Danielle gets a car, we're at the end of another year of homeschooling, college searching is coming up...take a deep breath.

Ok, I'm breathing again!

Please be praying for our family, I know the Lord is close to the broken hearted, I can feel Him breathing on me daily!