cherry jubilee

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Going Gluten Free and Vegan

We're on a new journey. A life journey, but specifically a food journey for now. It starts with my son, Gregory, who has been on lots and lots of medicines, with no medical reason besides it keeps him from having pneumonia every month.

See, from the time Gregory was a baby, he had non stop ear infections. At 11 months, he had a set of tubes placed. In no time short, they came out and a second set was done when he was 18 months old. To this day, Gregory is almost 4, they are still in place.

Once the second set of tubes were placed, Gregory began with non stop chest infections. He was on antiobiotics, oral steroids, and the occasional rocephin shot, 3 weeks out of the month. Eventually one allergy and asthma doctor convinced us to put him on Singulair and Pulmicort daily, with Xopenex as needed via the nebulizer. Gregory continued to get sick, so off we went to a pediatric pulmonologist. He kept Singulair, daily, and Xopenex, as needed, but changed the Pulmicort out for Flovent. He made our life much easier by getting rid of the nebulizer and moving to a spacer. We also added Zyrtec and Flonase, both daily. On all 4 of the daily medicines, and a few time a week of Xopenex, Gregory has stayed well for 6 out of 8 weeks. The other 2 weeks are spent on Millipred and/or Orepred and an antibiotic.

Suffice it to say, now that he's some what controlled, finding his trigger is a must. He's been tested for Cystic Fibrosis, negative, and he's had allergy testing. Results, he's allergic to milk, egg, pecans, and shellfish. That's it, no cats, no dogs, no mold, etc. Those things would have made it easy, some allergy shots for a few years, and boom, he's cured.

Not so for Gregory.

A CT Scan showed complete blockage of his sinuses and his adenoids were enormous. Just this last week, his adenoids were removed by the ENT, and his sinuses irrigated. In recovery, Gregory looked well! His eyes weren't swollen, his nose was beautiful, and his face was a spectacular shade of normal! Oh my, how I wished this would work. That is, until the doctor gave me the post op lecture. It went something like,

"Well, he had a disgusting nose...He's been on what antibiotics?...Oh, well they haven't done anything...I irrigated for over 10 minutes and puss just kept pouring...lots of infection."

And the grand, I know about as much as you do moment,

"Well, his nose was clean when I left it, but I'm not hopeful it'll stay that way." *Complete with a look of helplessness*

Seriously, my mind was shouting, "SERIOUSLY!" I can't even tell you what we've spent, how many, this is it moments we've had, and this may work. I say "Bull$hit!" I'm his mother, and obviously I know more than they do when it comes to keeping Gregory healthy.

Immediately I started a gluten free vegan diet. We've enjoyed a largely plant based diet for a long time, but didn't watch for milk or egg. Gluten is linked to lots of conditions, and in some cases, unexplained cases of asthma. Gregory has asthma. Gregory is unexplained. Gregory is allergic to milk, a preservative in most everything, including meat.

Long story short, we are here, now vegan, now gluten free. The whole family.

We're commited to it for the duration it takes to find out what's causing this sickness in my baby boy. We're giving him every shot at a normal life, where he can play outside without the worry of getting sick.

This blog is to follow his and our changes.

And my love of cooking and baking, and the big changes we're making together.

3 comments:

  1. Hi, you don't know me, but I am Amber's sister-in-law. I saw that you were starting a gluten-free diet on her facebook and I think that it is great. My son is on a gluten-free, casein-free diet because he is diagnosed in the autism spectrum. I was worried when we started it, but it really is not too hard. We have always made his food, so it was a matter of switching out ingredients. It really helped him, it was almost a complete turn around. I hope the diet helps. If you ever need anyone to bounce ideas off of, send me a message.

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  2. You are one committed Mama! (Bravo!)

    I've long believed that Mommies know more than doctors when it comes to their kids. :-)
    Good luck on the journey!

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  3. Some of the comments you made, Jessica, are so familiar to me with Peyton. I can totally relate to the draining of the infection. The doctor's right - they can drain all they want, but it doesn't stay gone. Peyton had so much junk suctioned out of her lungs during a bronchoscopy a month ago. The doctor said she could have kept going, but it's just going to come right back - and it did. I wish you well on this new food journey. Sounds like you've discovered some great options. I may have to get some recipes from you!

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