So after the challenge that was “special eating” in February, I’ve still decided to get me and the kids a general allergy (blood) test.
We spent something like 2 hours in an 84-degree office answering detailed questions and wracking brains to be sure we’d thought of everything possible for each of the four of us.
And we get to go back on Wednesday for the actual blood-draws/pricks.
Now, part of me objects to the extended torture that is five people in a near-airless 6×10 room– especially since, in theory, the test does everything. But another part is intrigued by the naturopath’s effort to tie diverse symptoms to possible causes or solutions/remedies.
One possibility she suggested is zinc deficiency, that’s been tied to sensory integration dysfunction/sensitivity. This label is something that can both be scoffed at and tied to G/T kids. This (G/T), if you’ll forgive a mother for saying so, I have evidence all the children are.
Which makes perfect sense, considering their parents’ brains “work differently” as well.
So we are adding zinc to our daily supplements, with the hope that it will level out a spectrum of sensitivities displayed by members of our family (yes, I can be more specific in e-mail if it’s important). The main question is whether a zinc deficiency is playing a role in these behaviors or if they are simply elements of personality. And we can’t even know right away because this deficiency take so long to remedy– anywhere from 2 months to a year, she said.
What I want for myself is my tolerance-level for normal kid-stuff (tapping, touching, chewing loudly, spontaneous explosions of sound) to be neutral again, rather than them feeling like personal assaults. “It hasn’t always been this way.”
The progression toward answers goes like this:
- Initial consult (Today)
- Blood-taking: full draw from me, prick from each of the kids (next week)
- Discussion of results (something like 3 weeks later. Apparently the labs take a long time.)
So we’ll keep stop-gapping with what we know about, experimenting with what we don’t, and generally try to live as normal a life as we can with random tummy aches in a house that isn’t ours…
The upside is that the general level of stress seems to have gone down. I know I’m more relaxed than I have been, and I think the kids are too. For all this I am *thankful*!
We went back for the blood work yesterday.
It was highly traumatic.
My hand felt wrong about the second tube in (like I was dehydrated and didn’t have a high enough volume of blood), and all of the children did poorly, though they each just had a “stick” and circles on a card to fill, rather than an actual “draw” like me.
Natasha got woozy, with spots before her eyes, had to lay down. Melody cried and cried how much it hurt, and Elisha was so tense (high blood pressure from it, if I don’t miss my guess)the tech never had to squeeze his finger to fill the sample. In fact it took a while for the bleeding to stop.
I pray the results will be worth the trauma.
What highly annoyed me is that the clinic didn’t have anything for the pain or any sort of juice for the disorientation.
I asked the extra gal to please get the the girls some water at least and she was very slow to respond. It was like she was used to tuning out children’s inevitable distress rather than attempting anything to alleviate it.
Mama was annoyed.
I’ll be looking for a comment card when we go back for the “interpretation” stage.