New Fructose Malabsorption Support Group

For those of you who stumble across this blog while searching for information about Fructose Malabsorption, I just wanted to let you know that a new Fructose Malabsorption Support Group has been set up.

This group has just started, so as with most things, it is starting small, but hopes to grow over time. While the previous Australian Support Group I mentioned provides a lot of information, it can also be very restricting to those who don't fall into their FM outline as this group specializes in those who cannot eat wheat products. While this is common in FM and many cannot eat wheat, there are also many who can eat some form of wheat, whether only very little bits, or a certain kind (sourdough). And so the new group is more open to all varieties and sensitivity levels of FM so as not to make people feel like they have to fall in a certain "mold" or that they are not properly helping themselves if they continue to eat wheat.

Hopefully over time this group will grow and be helpful for those who are looking for information and help with FM. If you are suffering from FM please help it grow by joining and introducing yourself and asking any questions you have.

You can find the new support group at:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/fructose_malabsorption/

Getting Big

My boys getting big ... just some little tidbits about our growing little big guy.


Matthew likes to hang out on our bed and watch Barney, Spot, Little People and recently has added Thomas to his list. I am not to keen on the amount of TV he watches, but know that it goes in spurts depending on how he is feeling. Recently he finally decided to reattempt to get off the bed on his own (he was able to before but something must have happened as he refused to do it again) and now that he gets off the bed on his own he often doesn't watch for long but comes wandering back out of the bedroom after about 10-15 minutes. It seems he just needs that "down-time" to get refocused and reenergized and then he's okay to go for a while again. Whatever it is, it's the only thing besides holding him that stops him from being so miserable on his bad days.


Poor Zoey (my parent's dog) ... Matthew really tries to be nice, but he's just a bit rough. Matthew has no fear and has never shown any fear of dogs. It's a good thing that Zoey is too old and dumb to act very quickly as poor Matthew has deserved a few bites. I will never forget the time just after Matthew started crawling that I found him clinging onto Zoey's saggy cheeks, looking the dog straight in the eye with no fear at all. Zoey on the other hand looked quite afraid and unsure what to do ... funny ... this is the same dog who took a good hunk out of Rob's (and others) leg before. Matthew loves animals and tries to be nice, but his pets and pats are rather rough and since Zoey is old and deaf Matthew scares the crap out of her quite often. I'm afraid one of these days Matthew is going to pick on the wrong dog and we could have some serious consequences.


Another of Matthew's loves is the toothbrush. For quite some time now he has had his own toothbrush and has enjoyed walking around with it in his mouth, chewing away at it. He always enjoys being part of the routine and loves to climb up with the girls to brish with them. He's also very good at spitting ... nobody had to teach him that he figured that one out quite easily on his own. For a time he got into the habit of cleaning the sink, toilet or the registers with his toothbrush. (He can climb up on the toilet himself to get the brush, so if the bathroom door was left open he'd be in there with his brush). Needless to say we were going through quite a few toothbrushes in a short period of time, so we had to pack away the toothbrush for a bit. This did not go over very well and he would often be begging to brush his teeth. Recently I allowed him to have a brush again and we try keep it out of his reach as well as have him under close supervision when it is brushing time ... we'll see how long he behaves.


The stools are usually hidden in our house since Matthew is way to quick and mischievious if they are out. If the girls are doing cooking or baking then they take the stool out for a bit. Matthew is right in there like a dirty shirt and the second they are off that stool he's up there and getting whatever his hands can get ahold of. If there's one thing that Matthew likes it's the foods that he's not allowed to have, this is why the stools must remain hidden and all food far back on the counter as even without a stool he seems to have arm extensions that reach quite far. He enjoys to be part of what everyone else is doing also and here he is cracking egg shells ... since he's allowed eggs that's okay.



And when he's not cooking, he's cleaning!! I assume all kids like the vacuum cleaner as I know all of mine have ... it's just a kid thing ... too bad it wears off so quickly. You can see laying on the floor a little red vacuum that is suppose to be Matthew's, but of course that is not good enough and he much rather use the real one. And the real one is not good enough unless it is actually running and making lots of noise. He has lots of fun doing this.







And here is one of Matthew's favourite past times lately ... books. He just loves to read. Often if he's quiet I don't know whether to go look and find out what kind of trouble he's into and what kind of mess I'm going to have to clean up or just leave him for fear I might disturb he's good playing or his reading time. Thankfully his box of books is in his bedroom so it's somewhat easy to sneak up and check on him without him noticing. He is often found sitting on the floor reading through the books and like a true boy he loves the ones with trucks and construction equipment. He has also taken a liking to Thomas books. These were not in his box but he found them on the shelf in the girls room during one of his distructive moments when he was ripping off books and throwing them on the floor. After that he kept going back to get them off the shelf, so we added them to his box ... amazing how they naturally gravitate to these things.




It's such a fun age to watch them grow and learn so much each day. It also makes me sad at times as each day he learns more he becomes less and less a baby ... if only we could freeze him this way (when he's having a happy day :).

100th Day

Yesterday the Grade 1 class celebrated the 100th day of school. On this day they do various activities about the number 100. This day is also an open house day and they try to get 100 visitors to come to the class. Well they managed to 130 visitors this year.

Matthew and I went to visit during the morning. We took along Aunt Aileen, Taryn and Aiden, who had also brought with them Hannah and Lydia. This was a pleasant surprise for Rebecca for she had not expected these visitors. We enjoyed a piece of cake, a couple stories and spent some time helping the kids make their 100 day necklace out of fruitloops and licorice. The classroom was full of parents, siblings, aunts, grandparents ... it was a busy place. Later on Joycee and Ryan came to visit Rebecca and at the end of the day Rob stopped in for surprise visit.

Matthew sat with Rebecca after recess for a few minutes. This didn't last long and he got the wiggles, plus Rebecca had to do some cleanup. While Rebecca was cleaning up Matthew tried on her (incomplete) 100 Day Crown. It's suppose to have 100 stickers and a 100 Day "sign" on it ... Rebecca was a little behind and didn't get it done.
















Hannah sat beside Rebecca for a bit and they both made 100 Day necklaces. They had to put 100 fruit loops on the necklace in groups of 10, with pieces of licorice dividing the groups.

Just to forwarn you Aileen ... Marietta is already asking if you can come to see her Sarah, Plain and Tall play. It's on March 3 @ 11am ... come one, come all ;)

Winter Fun

We've had a good amount of snow this winter. I'm not particularly fond of cold weather and winter, but I do figure that if it's going to be cold I rather have snow with the cold ... it just looks so much nicer. We did pretty good for snow the last few months, getting a good dumping and slowly adding more dumpings without much melting in between. Makes for skinny roads and big piles in the front yards ... and of course lots of shoveling or snowblowing. I'm thankful my husband takes care of that department. I can guarantee I wouldn't like snow at all if it was my department.

I find the kids always play very well in the winter also. There is so much that they can do out in the snow. It takes a bit to get them outside and sometimes I just have to kick them out, but once they're out they find plenty to do and usually don't come back all to quickly. Unfortunately it has been quite a cold winter and so I didn't send Matthew out, although he sure would have loved to. A few times I let him go out, but he has a hard time maneuvering in all the clothes. One time he fell face in the snow and nobody saw it happen right away. He couldn't figure out how to get up again, so there he lay until he was noticed ... poor guy.

Since it has been so cold (often -15C) sledding really wasn't all that appealing, for once you add the wind factor it's just bone chilly. There was one time we tried it out. We weren't quite sure what to do with Matthew and then decided that since he has no fear he would surely enjoy the ride ... so off we went. Well it appears that our dear little boy does have some fear in him ... for he one ride down that hill had him crying up a storm and now he refuses to go near a sled, even for a nice calm ride on level ground. We didn't last very long at the hill that day as it gets rather cold just sitting there holding a scared boy and watching others sled.

A couple weeks ago the weather warmed up and all the snow melted. Knowing that it was all going to melt away we decided to head out sledding while the weather was a nicer temperature. This time we figured it was warm enough for Matthew to play at the bottom of the hill. We usually hit the Water Treatment Plant ... a common sledding area ... but decided to try something different this time. So instead we went to Olympic Park on the West Mountain. This is a smaller hill, but still a good size for the girls. The best part was we had the whole hill to ourselves (not sure if this is normal). There was a nice little ramp that someone had made and the kids thought this was great fun since they've never attempted these at the other hill with it being bigger.

Rebecca and Marietta










Rebecca and Rob

And Matthew hung out at the bottom of the hill. He enjoyed watching and would point and laugh. At first he hardly dared move on the unlevel snowground, but by the end he was playing around with the snow.

At the end of January Hamilton celebrated Hamilton Winterfest. There were various free activities throughout the city which we (or the girls) partook in. Several of the recreation centers had free craft, cooking, games or something of that assort sessions that you could sign up for. The girls went to two of these sessions where they did crafts and some "cooking" (in quotation because all they really did was stir the chili together but didn't come near the stove). As a family we went to one of the parks for a morning. They had various games there (not very well attended) and a horse and wagon ride, as well as indoors you could enjoy a free snack, hot chocolate and lunch ... so being the dutch people that we are we went out for that.

The horse and wagon ride and the girls with Chimo the Winterfest Mascot

The girls played at the park for a bit ... Rob and Matthew joined in.

The other winter fun that the kids got to do was go to Bronte Creek with the whole school for a day. The school started a new event (they hope to make it annual) and the kids had an amazing time. They spent the entire day at Bronte Creek each taking turns going sledding, skating, playing in the playbarn, having lunch, and playing different snow games (and snowballing their teachers). The girls begged me to come along as one of the helpers ... but I only like winter from inside my house and don't much like being cold ... so the idea of spending a whole day out in the freezing cold was not appealing. In the end they had a nice day of around -5C, so it was rather ideal weather ... but still I was happier inside my house. Needless to say, the kids slept good that night!!

Some Progress!?!? (We Hope!!)

A few weeks ago the kids had Career Day at school. They had to dress up as what they would like to be when they got bigger. Neither of the girls really know what they want to be or have any desire to be anything at this point, so they just picked something that would be easy to dress up for or that they had "tools" for. I don’t have a picture of Marietta, but she didn’t look any different anyways so it doesn’t really matter. She chose to be a hairdresser, so she dressed normal and then had a caddy of all different hairdressing tools. Rebecca decided to be a doctor. We found a extra small nurses outfit at Value Village and I just had to shorten the legs a bit to make it fit. We couldn’t find the surgeon’s hat that James’ got (see here) but we gathered other medical stuff that’s accumulated over the past years and they had a fun day.

We have news about Rebecca’s stomach. This past week we seen GI. We were very thankful to manage to get our June referral changed to January. This was originally Matthew’s appointment slot, but he got bumped up to December when he was diagnosed with Fructose Malabsorption so our very nice GI Doctor agreed to see Rebecca in his time slot (usually you can’t do this because it was only a follow-up time slot and you need a consultation time slot for first appointments).

At first it didn’t seem that much came out of the appointment. The doctor would like to just get to know Rebecca and monitor what’s happening before trying to come to any further ideas on how to help her. She did order a x-ray of her stomach since we have never had one done (we have had an ultrasound, but no x-ray). We did that and then went back to wait for the results but for some reason they were not coming up on the computer in a timely fashion so we went home and they called back the next day.

Rebecca’s x-ray, to put it bluntly, shows that she’s full of poop. Even though our less restrictive diet has put her back on a daily bowel movement schedule she is still backed up and not clearing out her system properly. So we started her on a laxative called Dulcolax. She had to take 5 doses of this and just completed her last dose tonight. This laxative works by stimulating the colon muscles to contract and push it’s contents along. It also helps by accumulating water to soften the stools and allow easier elimination. Let’s just say it works well. The nurse warned that she would probably have more pain while taking it and this was indeed true, but she’s been tough knowing that it’s short term and hopefully is going to help the ongoing pains. She was also a bit nervous about going to church (a bit of an anxiety attach) for fear she would be in too much pain or have to keep going to the bathroom. She stayed home this morning since I was home with Matthew anyways and it’s a good thing she did. By afternoon the worse of the last dose had worn off and she was good to go in again.

Tomorrow she starts on another type of laxative called Polyethylene Glycol 3350. This type of laxative increases the amount of water in the colon, but does not stimulate the muscles like the Dulcolax. At this point they are saying she will probably need to be on this for the next six months or so. She has a follow-up appointment in three months so we’ll see how things are going at that time.

So it’s a bit of a comfort to have found something that seems to explain her increase in pain in the last months. It is also nice to know that it is something that has treatment options. We have no idea how long this has been a problem since we have never done an x-ray before. She did have an ultrasound in July, so I assume if it was an issue then it would have shown up ... but I am not really sure and will have to discuss with the doctores. Based on that our guess is that her very restrictive diet at that time did more damage then good. It is really hard to tell at this point whether we were always dealing with bowel/constipation issues or how Fructose Malabsorption factors into the whole equation. For now we hope that this treatment will ease her pain and allow us to better establish and understand how much Fructose Malabsorption is an issue for her. We will also have to better establish a diet with more fiber ... something rather hard to do when you have FM.

So that is the biggest news on the Rebecca front. We hope that this will bring some relief and maybe also ease some of her anxiety as well. We were thankful to see that the GI doctor did not quickly dismiss her case because of the possibility of emotional/anxiety/depression issues. She felt that there was likely both going on and that we needed to look at both, this was comforting.

On the emotional end of things. Since I last wrote we have gone through two assessment/interview processes in order to get Rebecca into a counseling program. The first assessment determined if they felt help was needed. The second assessment was to better understand which treatment would be best for her . We sat down with two therapist and from there they take it back to the team and decide what program would work best for our family. We were told it would take about six weeks to get into a program, so we are just waiting on that right now. They were encouraging in that they did say that it seemed we were on the right track with how we are treating/helping her.

So all in all, things are looking a bit more positive right now. Not that she is feeling any better at this point, but we have gotten our foot in the door at the needed places to hopefully be able to get her on the mend.

Trouble

A little while ago we received a box of used clothes from a friend and in the box was this shirt. It's a few sizes to big for Matthew but given how PERFECT it is for him I just had to put it on and make sure I had a picture of him.

TROUBLE is Matthew's nickname, so this shirt could not be more ideal. He's had this nickname for ... well ... I'd say as long as I can remember, but I'm guessing it would be about the time he started being mobile and getting into TROUBLE all the time. Everyone in the house calls him Trouble about as much as they call him Matthew ... although recently we've been hearing the name Monkey about as much as Trouble now that he's become quite the expert on climbing and then therefore getting into ... you guessed it ... Trouble!

It's funny how all the kids pick up there own nicknames ... and pretty much from shortly after they're born. Marietta was always known as Sweetpea ... which as she became older turned into Sweetie. We don't call her either very often anymore. Rebecca was known as Turkey Lurkey or on even worse days TURKEY LURKEY ... this was due to her non-stop crying for almost her entire first year of life. We still call her this at times just to bug her, but mostly we use her other nickname which she also receive when she was a baby ... Boofy. I have no idea where this one came from, just one of those names that stuck. She isn't all that keen on being called this anymore, but we still do at times without even realizing it. James had two nicknames as well. One was Pooperoo due to his many dirty diapers in a day ... which unfortunately he never outgrew. The name we called him most was Bud. He was everyones little Buddy. I remember calling Matthew that a few times when he was little and always stopping as soon as I said it and thinking how I couldn't call him that name because it belonged to James. I definitely didn't call Matthew that anymore after Rebecca pointed out that "He's not Bud, that's James' name!" And so eventually Matthew earned his own nickname, I think it took him the longest of all the kids to receive one, but I'm sure that also has to do with the fact that his first five months we just weren't focusing on him ... we've definitely made up for lost time in that area, he's quite the spoiled little troublemaker now.

And just a few more photos.

One more shot of his shirt, and one of him pigging out, a sight we always enjoy. The old Matthew has been back the last month and so we've been somewhat discouraged again, but we sure enjoyed the month of December when we seen him stuffing his face like this all the time and playing so wonderfully. The last two days he's gone back to stuffing his face ... hopefully happy Matthew will come back also.

If it has wheels and moves, Matthew is determined to find a way to ride it.

Glaxal Base

Why it's not a good idea to let the girls watch Matthew while you go out to run some errands (with Rob downstairs studying).

Well at least he won't suffer from dry skin for a bit. Thankfully Glaxal Base is alot easier to clean up then zinc oxide. And now my dear hubby can shake his head and say "I told you to close the lid on the jar so Matthew doesn't get into it!!" So really ... it's my own fault!! :(

Christmas Holidays

Well it's time to catch up again. Can't believe we're already half way through Januaray ... seems like we just finished having holidays and already next week the kids have a two-day break again.
I remember the holidays being very busy, especially the first week. Busy, but fun and relaxing. It was especially enjoyable to see Rob more and not just to see him, but to see him relaxed and involved in the day to day routine. The kids also very much enjoyed this and it took a bit for Matthew to adjust to everyone leaving again once school started. The first day he kept asking for daddy and everytime we would go downstairs he would say "Daddy, Daddy!?!?"

So after our croquette making day the girls went off for a visit at Uncle Nathan and Aunt Aileen's to play with their cousins. This meant the following day would be quiet day at home in which I hoped to do some much needed catch up on a few things and Rob would have a study day. It being my birthday we agreed to celebrate my birthday on the 24th instead so that girls could still have their fun and not miss out (not like there's much to celebrate, but you know, for kids this is an important thing). Well we didn't make it home that night, but after getting partway home realized the van was not in shape to go the rest of the way and so we turned around and returned to my parents. So my birthday was spent relaxing and extra snoozing at my parents while Rob spent the day using the shop and fixing up the van. We headed home after supper, picking up the girls along the way.

We spent Christmas at home this year ... can't remember the last time we've done nothing for Christmas ... I think it was probably the year James was born. It was a nice day. We just relaxed and spent some time together as a family. The girls spent some time decorating cookies and they were suppose to put together a gingerbread house with Rob's help ... but I think Rob was having so much fun that they were just allowed to be assistants ... putting on the candies where he specified :) And seeing as sugar is something a few of us need to stay away from here ... we weren't going to eat the thing so we brought it along the next day to our family get together (Rob's side of the family) where everyone ate the candies off it and picked a few corners of cookie off to eat.
























Boxing Day was spent in London as Rob's family got together for the day. It was especially exciting because John and Martha and family were able to make .... too bad Pete and Ingrid couldn't make it otherwise it would have been the first time since Pete and Ingrid's wedding (2002) that we've been together as a complete family ... we'll try again next year! :) I didn't go with skating this year, so no pictures of that, but here's Ike having a snuggle time with overtired Matthew.











The next day was more good eating ... this time with my family as we gathered at my parents. The girls had been looking forward to this because they wanted to go snowmobiling ... something they've never done before, pretty sad considering the snowmobiling family I come from. Unfortunately the weather had warmed up and it had been raining so that at the snow had all melted. But we still had a fun day. It's neat to see how the girls are getting older and can now participate in games etc. It's also nice to sit down with the whole family and play games together. I know the kids really enjoy this as I'm sure the adults do to. Here's mom and dad together as a team while we played the In-A-Box game (or the game of Things)










The girls ended up staying at my parents overnight and so Rob and I had a few quiet days without them. On Sunday night the girls moved from my parents place to Mark and Val's for a couple nights. Uncle Mark and Aunt Val spoiled the girls and took them to the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark in Niagara Falls. What a lot of fun they had there ... we sure heard about it for the next few days (and then some).

Our original New Years Eve plans were cancelled due to sick kids at the hostess, so we ended up staying home and had Tim (Rob's classmate) and Linnet down for the evening to play a couple games and chat. The girls were also allowed to stay up till midnight this time, so we all enjoyed a lazy morning the next day, even Matthew slept in a little and then played nicely while Rob and I lazed in bed.

Upon finally getting up we decided to ring up my parents and see if they had gotten anymore snow then we had in the last day. Unfortunately they had not but there was still enough on the ground to at least do a short run on the snowmobile. So we headed off to their house again and the girls had a great time ... hopefully we'll get a chance to go a time or two again this winter.

Marietta and my dad on the first picture and Rebecca and Rob on the second

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When the girls came back in Matthew just had to try on the helmet. I had to be fast with the picture because as soon as I took my hand away his head would flop down from the weight of the helmet ... guess he's gonna need a few years before he can go out.

On Saturday we headed off to Dave and Ange's for a visit. The kids had been talking about going their again for New Years Eve because they wanted to go GTing (behind the 4-wheeler) again, so they were disappointed when the snow all melted and further disappointed when our plans were cancelled. But there was just enough snow on Saturday to go out for a bit and fill their desires ... until the GT broke! :(

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And then holidays were over and it was back to school again.

Happy New Year

So as we reach the end of another year we tend to reflect on all that’s happened in the past year. For us I think the biggest thing is how hard it is to believe that another year has gone by so quickly. We all get that sense at the end of a year so I suppose that is just a normal feeling. It just so hard to believe that James has been gone for so long already. It used to be that we would think “Last year at this time …”, but now when I think that it hits me each time again that last year at this time he was already gone and we were grieving intensely. But at the same time it’s a reminder how far we have come over the past year. It often leaves a feeling of guilt to know that we have continued with our lives. It’s not that we will ever be the same as before, but as we return to normal we will slowly have to get over the heartache of leaving James “behind” (we know he’s really not behind us but ahead). Although that heartache is no longer as intense now, we still miss our boy an awful lot.

We are so very thankful for the three children the Lord has given us. Like all children they bring some not so joyful moments at times, but in general it is a great joy to raise them. And I can end off the year at bit more lighthearted after seeing such a drastic change in our little boy. We still have not gotten over the amazement and joy of having such a happy boy who eats and plays so nicely. Not a day goes by that we don't comment on how wonderful it is. We realize we're going to have ups and downs yet as we try to figure out his diet in more detail, but having gotten to the route of the problem and having a decently stable boy right now is enough for us to rejoice!! We pray that we can soon have the same joy for Rebecca, that an answer may be found and relief for her as well. And how thankful we are that at least one of our children does not have any health issues (at this point).

And of course I am extremely thankful for the husband I have who stands by my side and is my soulmate ... I cannot imagine where I would be without him to help me through each day again. What a blessing it is to be able to work together as a team through all the ups and downs that life brings.

So I end off this year by wishing you all a very blessed and happy new year. No matter what happens may you look to our Lord and Saviour throughout the coming years to guide you, strenghten you, comfort you and grant you all you stand in need of each day again.

I leave off with the words of the text from our sermon this evening:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come" II Corinthians 5:17

Rebecca Again

I thought I’d just do a follow up on Rebecca. After I last wrote we had our follow-up visit with the hollistic allergist. I explained that she was not any better, if anything she is worse, even though we had adjusted her diet to what he had told us last time. I must admit he lifted himself a bit in my books by his answer. Since she is not any better it is his opinion that her problems are not food related. Since part of his treatment is iridology he spent some time reviewing what he sees by looking in her eyes.

Iridologists look at a persons eyes and from what they see they believe they an tell you more about the condition of a persons body. They use a iris chart to determine what the eye is telling them. Although the majority of my research says that iridology is not very reliable or accurate, I suppose it doesn't hurt to listen and see what they have to say (especially if it's covered in the cost anyways) ... who knows it could give leads to a correct idea.

While we were there he showed me her eye and what he believes her eyes are saying. I had a chance to look also and compare her eye to the charts he had. I wrote down the name of the conditions her eye says she has in order to further look it up ... but for the life of me I can't find the info back ... grrrr. According to what he saw in her eye he claims that her problems are anxiety related. He says that her colon is as tight and tense as can be and it shows it is this way due to stress or anxiety. So ... he could be right, he could be guessing ... just like we are right now ... guess we'll have to wait and see what time tells us.

We also found out a few weeks ago that Rebecca has a parasite. I do not know the name of the parasite, I will have to ask next time I’m in. Our pediatrician said that it’s not a serious parasite and often they would not bother treating it if there were no symptoms, but since Rebecca has symptoms of something it is worth treating.

Treating this has snowballed a few other issues. Since Rebecca has Fructose Malabsorption we have the check her medications first to see if they are FM friendly. The doctor ended up putting her on a pill form because of the ingredients of the liquid form. So three times a day we had to crush this pill and give it to Rebecca. Well to say that this stuff tastes disgusting would be putting it extremely mild. We tried several different ways of feeding it to her before we settled on the theory “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”. Of course with her we shouldn’t be using excessive sugar so it’s really a mixture of stevia, aspartame and a bit of sugar. Although this was working it was causing some severe anxiety. It didn’t take us long to realize that she was not doing well. She would not eat much, she always had stomach pain, she dreaded taking her medication, although she did so very faithfully and would remind us if we forgot.

Since Rebecca had to take the medication three times a day we taught her how to take it herself so that she could bring it with to school. Come Monday morning though it became obvious this wasn’t going to work and once again we are very thankful for living so close to the school. I promised her we would come and help her at lunch time. She was only at school about an hour when we got a call to pick her up as she wasn’t doing so well. Upon coming home she was fine though and so we were sure that she was so anxious about taking the medication. I called to have it switched to a liquid form … I much rather give her some extra fructose then deal with such an uptight basketcase. Changing the medication brought on a totally new child again. She began eating again, was happy, and no more tummy aches. Another sign to us that we are dealing with an anxiety/stress/emotional problem.

With the holidays and all the good eating we decided to give Rebecca a holiday from her strict diet as we still are leaning towards the fact that her Fructose Malabsorption is not a very severe version. We have enjoyed two weeks of a pretty easy going kid with only a couple short-term tummy issues. We have kept her off the major fructose problem foods and try to not go to extreme on the sugar intake (okay, a few except there as well) and we’re all enjoying the less restrictive diet. There past two weeks have confirmed our belief that FM is not really Rebecca's problem. If it were the problem she would have been severally ill from all that she has intaken during the past weeks.

So now we do the waiting game again. We have tried to minimize all attention regarding her tummy with hopes we will hear less if she is not gaining extra affection. This has not been successful, but at least we have the comfort that we know she is not just complaining for special attention or privileges. (This does not mean we do not give her any sympathy or love, but it does mean she does not get to stay up late, sleep in the lazy boy, watch video, etc). We have seen improvement since the parasite medication so time will tell whether this was playing a factor or whether she’s just going through a less emotional/anxious time. There is also the fact that we are during holiday season now, so she is not in school and we do not know how much school stresses her. She does not appear stressed and loves school, so we've never thought it any issue, but she may not realize herself that she gets over anxious or stressed ... still playing guessing games here. Given the success of the past week with her diet change it supports our theory that FM is not her major problem as she should have had immediate bad effects if it truly were.

Although it hasn’t been fun we have thanked Rebecca several times for being diagnosed with FM (as well as being so good at following her diet and trying each new change that's come up) … if Rebecca had not been we would never have figured out what was bothering Matthew!!

Rebecca wanted to make lunch the other day. We had a snacky lunch of Triscuits with toppings. She was quite proud that she could do it almost all by herself and requested I take pictures of her ... I'm assuming with the intent she wanted it to go on the blog just like Marietta.

So here she is prepping the triscuits ... and with the finished product.

Salsa Triscuits -top triscuits with salsa and cheddar cheese

Pizza Triscuits -top triscuits with pizza sauce, piece of pepperoni, mozzerella cheese and a sprinkle of basil

Microwave or place in oven until cheese has melted. Enjoy!!