Happy Birthday Ed!

Happy Birthday dear Ed.... Happy Birthday to You!

He got his favorite soup for dinner and pie for dessert.

I also surprised him with some Ugg slippers - he loves them :)

Thanks Grammy and Papa

Thanks for having us! We had a great time!

Girl's Morning Out

The girls went to get our nails done and had a great time. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the nails once they were done, but the little girls had pretty pink polish with flowers on the thumbs. Very cute.

Thanksgiving and Cousins

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving in Indiana with cousins.

Old Friends

We were able to visit a few friends we hadn't seen in a while on this trip to Indiana. We stopped in Columbus, OH to see Dale (Ed's college roommate). He has a new dental practice and a beautiful family. It was fun to catch up a little.

We were also able to visit with Joy and Aaron Larkin. Joy was in the hospital awaiting the birth of triplets! The three beautiful girls were born the day before Thanksgiving and everyone is doing fine. We have a special place in our heart for Joy and Aaron. Joy actually took the discussions at our home when Cami was a baby and was baptized by her husband Aaron. They are going to be FANTASTIC parents and we are so excited to follow the growth of their little ones. We love you guys!

I NEVER...

OK, no one actually has to read this, I just really needed to write it.

As you know, I was diagnosed with Celiac disease this summer. I have had stomach problems since about age 12 and have tried many medications and talked to many doctors. I finally feel well and am BEYOND grateful. I did, however suffer for a lot of years and don't wish that on anyone... especially my daughter Taylor.

She has been EXACTLY like me her whole life. She also suffers with stomach problems which have been getting progressively worse lately. She has been missing a few days of school here and there because of waking multiple times during the night and has lost a pound since spring. So, it's not a STRETCH that I would be concerned that she might have inherited a GENETIC disease from her mother - especially since she clears up almost immediately upon eating a gluten free diet.

I took her to our family doctor and he did labs which were negative. OK - but what about all the symptoms? He sent us to a specialist. We went today. Now I get to my rant.

We go into the room with the nurse and explain our situation to her. She takes careful notes and I emphasize that I am just curious if there are any other tests which I am not aware of that could be done to check for celiac. She says no, only a scope (which I know because I had to have one for my diagnosis). She leaves.

A few minutes later I hear the doctor meet the nurse outside the door. Their conversation goes something like this:

Dr. : What's this.
Nurse: This mom thinks her daughter has celiac, but the labs are negative. I think she wants a scope.
Dr. : What? What am I supposed to do?
Nurse: I know, I know.

Notice that he doesn't get any real information about Taylor during this conversation and doesn't even review the chart. Nor does he understand that I have celiac. At this point
he enters the room ready to be combative and condescending to a pushy/crazy parent who apparently wants her daughter to have celiac disease.

This is also why I don't tell doctors that I am a nurse practitioner at first. Ed doesn't understand why I do this and it irritates him, but you see what kind of a provider they REALLY are if they think you are just a mom. I do get treated differently when they know I am a NP, but I'd rather just know they are a jerk and move on to someone who's not.

So now I have to sit through a condescending lecture about how I just don't understand what "antibody" means and how "specificity" is defined. Otherwise I wouldn't be wasting his time. And if I insist on pushing the issue he could be forced to do an endoscopy, but would I really want to put my daughter through that? HE STILL HASN'T OPENED HER CHART OR LOOKED AT ANY OF HER SYMPTOMS!

I wait calmly and then ask him politely, what would you suggest we do about all of her symptoms? You see, I tell him, I don't actually care what diagnosis you give her, I just want her to FEEL better. I don't think any mom, especially one with celiac disease herself, would want their child to have that diagnosis.

PAUSE. He opens the chart.

Well... he stalls as he finally reads through her history. She probably just has a wheat allergy. You see (quick recovery to condescending tone) it's a common mistake parents make. Their children do well on a gluten free diet and they assume it's the gluten, when it's actually a combination of wheat allergy and peptic disease. If she still has problems after eliminating wheat and being treated with prevacid we'll consider a scope.

By this time I am trying to contain my anger and just want to leave. It's not even that it's a bad treatment plan. I agree. Why put a child through an invasive procedure until you have ruled out other options. I'm on board with the treatment, but HATE the way we got there.

I can say with confidence that I NEVER treated my patients like that. I always believe that people are more in tune with their bodies than we give them credit, and moms are VERY in tune with their children. Even if I couldn't find a specific problem with a child during exam, I would ask the mom - do you really believe something is wrong, because for me that's enough to warrant further testing. Most of the time they were just reassured by the exam and everything was fine. Occasionally a mom would tell me I just know something is wrong - and they were ALWAYS right.

What older doctors don't understand is that patients, especially worried moms, come to appointments well read on the subjects at hand. The age of the internet places a lot of information at our fingertips. Yes, some of it is bad, and you have to sort through that. But, much of it is cutting edge and docs don't like to be made to look stupid.

Did you know that in Europe the average time of diagnosis of celiac disease is 6 months from the onset of symptoms? In the US it's 11 years. Maybe it's time that we stopped relying on one stupid blood test and started thinking logically for a change.

By the way - what are the chances he will be proven wrong? By cutting out wheat products from her diet it will be almost impossible to get enough rye or barley to cause a positive result. He will never have to say he was wrong.

OK - done. I just hope Taylor feels better. You know what - an experience like this almost gets me fired up enough to enter the world of patient care again... someday :)

Chocolate Night

Ed came to do a Chocolate Presentation for our November Enrichment last Thursday. It was Fantastic (even after being locked out of the building until about 10 minutes before it was to begin - yikes!). They brought great pictures and chocolate stuff to display. The centerpiece was an amazing chocolate egg they got at a recent Hershey celebration. It was amazing! I had three of my neighbors attend and everyone was gushing about how this was the best enrichment meeting ever!

I can't thank Ed and Kathy enough for driving all the way here and back in one day and for chipping in and getting everything set up in record time. They also answered tons of questions from everyone until well past 9:00 (even though they knew they had a long drive ahead).

Thanks again and hooray for Chocolate!

What's a Ghillie?

That's what I said the first time they started talking about ghillies at dance class. Now I know - they are very cute Irish Dance shoes. Cami's new ghillies (OK, I just like saying the name) just came in and she got to wear them to class. She just completed her second month of lessons and absolutely LOVES it.

I am loved

I had a nice birthday and felt very loved.

Washington D.C.

We decided to get away with the kids and see some sights in D.C. this weekend. We had a great time, did a lot of walking, and decided we would definitely go back. We saw the Capitol Building, the International Spy Museum, and the National Air and Space Museum. You could go to D.C. a dozen times and never make it through all the museums - and all the ones run by the government are FREE.

Taylor was thrilled to see the real version of the puzzle she recently put together.

How did this make it into the National Museum of Art's Sculpture Garden?

The missiles were unbelievable!

Grapes

When Dallin found out that he wasn't allowed to go Trick-or-Treating unless he had a costume, he changed this mind. (Doesn't it drive you crazy when teenagers come to the door without costumes and hold out a pillowcase?) He and his friends came up with some funny costumes at the last minute. Dallin was a bunch of Grapes and a big hit in the neighborhood.