Weekend in Pictures

 Friday started out with Coleman's scope at the Children's Hospital.  Luckily there was ESPN while we waited.  We caught up on the March Madness.  With everything going on at our house, we totally forgot to print off brackets and fill them out!  Darn!

The procedure went well and we had some good news!  The Dr felt from his view that the damage is minor and we have caught it before it progressed too far.  We are very grateful for that!  We have to wait until next week for the pathology report from the samples that he took for biopsy but the Dr was pretty confident that it will show little damage.  

 I was hoping with that news that maybe it wasn't Celiac disease but just a wheat allergy that he could outgrow.  Unfortunately the Dr explained that this is not the case.  The blood panel they ran showed that Coleman definitely has the disease.  He said there are certain antibodies that they test for and would be about 5 normally and Coleman's were like 125--which makes them 99.9% positive that he has Celiac disease. Since this is a genetic disease, now our whole family needs to be have that blood test--just a fun little Spring Break activity--the boys are so excited:( ugh. LOL  The Dr said that he is always surprised that some people have the disease and it is doing damage inside but they do not have symptoms.  Strange, huh?

Luckily he was feeling back to normal pretty quick.  Good enough to put puzzles together the next morning.  Yeah!  Any activity that does not require a screen, makes this Momma HAPPY happy happy:)

Brad and Connor's long awaited guy road trip to the NCAA National Wrestling Championship finally arrived.  Connor was SO excited about this weekend!  He didn't forget to fill out his wrestling brackets:)

 Getting to meet Olympic gold medalist and national Champion Jordan Burroughs!

 Happy boy and a very sweet Daddy to drive him 12 hours.  I wondered why they didn't fly--since with all Brad's traveling we have lots of flight miles and he said he wanted the long hours in the car to talk to his son:)  Connor was also able to practice his driving skills since he is turning 16 in May.  Woo hoo!

 My Easter grass is growing like crazy!!  We have had to give it a haircut since this picture!  I am going to have to remember to start it just a week before next year.

 Sunday games with friends.  SO darn fun!!  We need to do this more often:)

Cannon is it for "Ducky Wucky" much tohis delight!

How was your weekend?  I hope happy!

We are currently on Spring Break--and it is so freezing cold here, darn it!

All my outdoor activities I was planning will probably have to be scratched... Grr!

It is Official...Gluten Free for us!

I got a call yesterday from the pediatric GI Doctor...Coleman's blood tests were back and he has Celiac  Disease.  I am in SHOCK!

I really thought that we had it figured out as stress related IBS--but I guess I was wrong.

Poor boy was so upset about the diet changes (lots of tears about no Cheez Its and pizza) and the scope that has to be done at our local Children's hospital in a few days. The Dr wanted to to do it asap to see how far the disease had progressed and asses the damage.  

This kind of breaks my heart---it will be such a HUGE life change for my little boy and all of us! We really like bread and I LOVE making baked goods for my family but we have all agreed that we are in this together!  I am going to have to learn to cook a whole new way.  It is hard to wrap my head around this, I really don't even know where to start.  It is overwhelming...but on the other hand,  I am so thankful to know the cause of his pain and discomfort. What a blessing to have this knowledge so we can take better care of him and he can feel good again.  Even though this feels really hard,  I am trying to focus myself and him on the fact that it could be worse.  Changing our diet is not a big deal in the scheme of things, right?!  What a blessing that this disease can be controlled with diet. 

TJ had an idea to go to the store and find Coleman GLUTEN FREE food he could get excited about to cheer him up:)  It worked!  He was pretty happy with the goodies we found! I did have to warn him that stuff like Fruity Pebbles and Gushers are a special treat and will not be staples in this new diet--ha ha!:) . And my sweet hubby called around and found a local pizza place that makes Gluten Free pizza--Thank you Lupi's--phew!

If anyone has experience with Celiac Disease or Gluten Free diet, I would be so grateful for any ideas or recommendations that you could give us. We are so clueless at this point, any advice would be greatly appreciated!   Thank you:)