Thankful Thursday!

Iris hosts Thankful Thursday over at her blog. Which of corse we are all thankful for! This week she posted a verse on the Lord's provision and listed the provisions she is thankful for ... this made me think of our week and how wonderfully the Lord has provided for us. Even our struggles are His provisions as they stretch us and grow us into more of what He intends us to be.

“So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.””
~ Genesis 22:14 ESV


If you look at this post you'll know why we feel so blessed and provided for. We are so excited to welcome our new little girl in just over two months! And we are so blessed to be surrounded by loving friends and family and many prayer warriors.

But after my Dr. Appointment and ultrasound yesterday I came home and had a call from Dr. V, the Endocrinologist who saw our two year old 2 weeks ago. He was concerned about some of Z's blood test results. Z has had various symptoms from failure to thrive to diarrhea, to aches and pains over the last year. But again God has provided the right Drs. on the right days and we are so well cared for ... wonderful how God provides.

Dr. V had drawn and tested for two different growth hormone levels, one was only related to growth hormones and that one was within normal range, but the second one tested a combination of growth hormones and nutrition. That one was below normal, leading Dr.V to think Z is having more issues nutritionally than hormonally. Specifically not absorbing the nutrition in what he eats, becuase he eats pleanty. This was also confirmed by the fact that the blood test for vitamin D was quite below normal and his cholesterol is quiet below where a 2 year old's should be. All of these test results really mean that Z is malnourished. OK, that is a terrible thing for a mom to hear! It fits with his cycles of diarrhea, and it fits with his lack of growth (very minimal growth) since Dec. 2006. But we still have no answers to what is causing him to be malnourished. Dr. V also repeated the celiac blood panel and all those results came back normal this time (in Aug half of those were normal but half were not), so we will not repeat the upper GI and biopsy for celiac as we had planned to in April.

But he will be seeing Dr. B (Pediatric Dermatologist) and having a skin biopsy in April as he has very odd spots on his torso (started appearing the same time as his diarrhea problems back in Dec 2006) and those spots are now moving to his arms and neck. They are brownish pigmentation spots, start out kind of red and end up brown, then never do disappear, he just keeps getting more. Dr. B is not concerned about anything cancerous, but wants to run a few other tests on skin samples. I believe that malnutrition and malabsorbtion can cause skin pigmentation issues.

Also in April he has an appointment to see Dr. S, a pediatric orthopedic (same bone Dr. his big brother Gus goes to for bone cysts) because over the last few months Zeke has been complaining that his legs hurt, and just recently he points to his back and tells us it hurts. He will often say "carry me carry me" or "hold me hold me, this hurts" (and he points to his leg). Because its hard to tell if Z really means his leg hurts or his knee joints hurt the Dr. who called yesterday (the endocrinologist) was concerned that this could be a rhueumatological problem (as is rheumatoid arthritis), so he made a few calls and the next thing I knew we had an appointment to see Dr. L for 11:30 this morning! Funny how for some of these specialists we have to wait two months to see and for some we only wait a half a day. Anyway Dr. L was very nice and talked with us for quite a while and checked out Zeke, but she is pretty certain that this is not rheumalogical. His joints look just perfect. But she agrees that there are too many odd symptoms going on and thinks that we need to keep visiting the different specialists to figure out what is causing the leg pains, the spots, the malnutrition, the diarrhea and the lack of growth. She drew more blood (poor Zeke) and is looking for something that is specifically muscular now, if that turns up she'll send us to a specialist who deals with that. We should hear about that on Monday morning, but would not go see anyone till we get backfrom hawaii.

So at the moment Z's medical calendar looks like this:


In March we have seen:

Dr. V. - Pediatric Endocrinologist (first time we met him was
this month)
Dr. St. - Pediatric GI specialist (we've been dr-ing with him
since last summer)
Dr. L - Pediatric Rheumatologist (first time with her was today,
but probably no need to go back)


In April we will see:

Dr. S - Pediatric Orthopedic (first time weeing him with Zeke)
x-raying a two year old is never fun, please be in prayer for that for us

Dr. B - Pediatric Dermatologist for the skin biopsy

Dr. ? - Pediatric Eye Dr. (we've also noticed Zeke needing to squint
alot and even close one eye to focus on stuff - wether or not that is
related to all the other stuff we don't know but it needs to be
checked out too)


In May we will see:

Dr. V - endocrinology follow up, re-check Zeke's height and weight
again, repeat some of the blood work to see what, if any, changes
have happend, dicuss what else we can do or who else we can see.

Dr. St. - G.I. follow up, height and weight check and discuss why
Zeke continues to be "malnourished", discuss what cycles the
diarrhea has taken, what suppliments might help, and who else
he thinks we should go see.


And then we'll see mommy's Dr too because we are having this baby
in MAY! Unless we have any clear leads or significant information
we'll probably see no Drs in June because mom will still be on pain
meds and can't drive for several weeks after a c-section.


Please be in prayer for Z ... he really is not fond of Drs. anymore
and does not like when we arrive at clinics. He gets very whinny and
clingy as soon as he realizes we are in a waiting room. Poor kid,
I can't say I blame him, but I want to figure out whats going on in
that cute little body, so we continue to see Dr. after Dr. We are
thankful and greatful that Z does not seem to be in constant
discomfort, it comes and goes, also that the diarrhea comes and
goes in cycles, he seems to have a very good appetite and attitude
most days, he has continued to develop cognitally and verbally.
He loves to play and chatter, but we would like some answers soon.

We know how wonderfully God provides, we know that God loves Z
and God knit him together before he was even born, He knows all
about Z, so we trust that He will provide the answers. Thank you to
all who have been praying for him!

Sorry this got a bit lengthy but now I will
have everyone all caught up on Z news.

And I just realized that tomorrow, March 14th, is Z's half birthday ... my little guy is officially 2 1/2 tomorrow ... and isn't he cute!