Health Woes

I don't spend a ton of time discussing or writing about the various things physically plaguing my eldest daughter. Mostly because it's hard to explain something for which you've never been given any definitive explanation.

Since her first year of life, she's kept doctors on their toes. She was born at a healthy 8lbs, but then didn't really grow much after that. She was labeled "failure to thrive" early on with growth percentiles in the negative numbers Also, in her first year, she had pneumonia and RSV and then continued to have pneumonia a few more times in her young life. At just under two years of age, she began the strangest of all of her ailments - every few months, without rhyme or reason, she has a vomiting episode. Each episode lasts 24-48 hours with vomiting approximately every 20 minutes. These episodes can land her in the ER to get an IV for dehydration (most recently last week).

The medical professionals (and the parents) go through cycles of thinking: "She's fine. This is just the way she is" and then "This isn't normal. What's wrong?"

The latter line of thinking normally creeps up when she has a dip in her already low growth curve, which happens occasionally. Often, it is pointed out that her father and I are not large people, so there might be a genetic factor. This may or may not be all there is to it. For one thing, her two sisters have never been in danger of being "failure to thrive" and although I'm not huge, I have never been as small as my daughter is. Her percentiles have been known to dip into negative numbers while I've always remained at or above the 35th mark. I also followed my own curve where she has dips. Even in our not so big family, she's still an anomaly, so I'm not completely convinced.

So.....here's where we are now.......

Over the course of the last 6 years, she's had what feels like a gazillion tests run. From all this we know.....That all of the major, serious and life-threatening issues and conditions have been ruled out (RELIEF!). All food and environmental allergies and sensitivities have been ruled out. Most anatomical malfunctions have been ruled out. Not all, but almost all, tests have come back completely normal. So what's left?

She has asthma. It's not severe and never has been. She doesn't have asthma attacks, just a lot of coughing. It has been easily controlled.

She is seeing an immunologist for Transient Hypogammaglobulinemia of Infancy. This means her body never quite learned how to make it's own antibodies very well. She is expected to outgrow this condition. However, her last blood test on this was this summer and the numbers did not change as the doctor expected them to. He was a little surprised by the outcome. She'll have another test in a few months and we're crossing our fingers that it turns around. If not, I have no clue what's next.

The ever mysterious vomiting syndrome - After years of observation, tracking, journaling, discussing, etc, we know very well how it behaves and looks. We know it isn't viruses or food related or even stress/emotion related. It is turning out that the most likely explanations are Migraines, Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome or something in that neurological arena. Unfortunately, there are no tests to diagnose these things and only come about by process of elimination. While it is nowhere near confirmed and just a working theory, Micah and I are leaning toward migraines. We've been told kids can get "abdominal migraines" that look a lot like what's happening to our daughter and then, later in life, become more classic migraines with headaches. With what we've observed over the years, this actually makes perfect sense to us, but more importantly, migraines run rampant on my mom's side of the family. A huge majority of my siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins (and myself) suffer from migraines. Time will tell if this theory is accurate. If it is, I'm relieved that it isn't serious, but heartbroken that she began suffering from them at such at young age and will continue with them indefinitely.

With all of that, none of it explains her size. There is no correlation between any of the above and "failure to thrive". I was told that even kids with Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome and Migraines tend to be normal size and follow their curve. She is a great eater, clearing her plate at every meal, making healthy snack choices and always willing to try new and unusual foods. Her absorption has been tested and looks great. No one knows what, if anything, is going on. For now, we've decided to table it again and go with "It's just the way she is", but that may or may not change as time reveals more details.

No matter what, she is an amazing, brilliant, beautiful and joyful little girl that does everything a 6 year old should be able to do. We just love her to pieces and pray she lives a full and wonderful life with whatever she given.