Friend #61

I hate bringing my kids to the doctor. When it's not a routine exam, it usually ends up with an order for some sort of blood test and as faithful readers know, my children (and 99.999% of all other children) HATE needles being jammed into their skin and veins.
My most recent excursion to the doctor was a follow-up visit to the Gastrointerologist for 6-year-old Jackson. Jack has always had issues with controlling his bowels. (See how nice I am? I'm making pooping his pants sound fancy!) We've had many close calls with being kicked out of preschools and day cares because of this issue, not that I blame them. Who wants to clean up a 4-year-old's undies? Not even me, his flesh-and-blood mother. After many trips to see our good friend, Dr. Joe, we received a referral to a GI doc. The first doctor we saw in June examined Jackson and ordered a complete "flush-out" since he was completely backed up like an overflowing toilet. This explained why he was eliminating his bowels unintentionally. The analogy the doctor used totally explained it. We did the flush and went on with our lives, with no change in Jackson's poor little tummy.
On our follow-up visit yesterday, we met the new GI doctor, Swati. She came in, played with Jackson for a bit and asked me about his lifestyle. My Jackson has his flaws, I told her, but health is NOT one of them. He gets TONS of exercise both in and outside of the pool (his dad's a swim coach, so he's training to be a fish.) He prefers broccoli to french fries at restaurants. He eats frequently, and well.
Swati ruled out a lack of fiber and stress as the causes to his bowel problems. Her next concern was/is that Jackson isn't digesting something correctly, so she ordered...wait for it....Blood Tests!
"Do you have any children," I asked the doctor. "I do not right now," was her reply as she gave me a look that said, "I know what you're accusing me of - not knowing how terrible it is to bring kids to get blood drawn." Which is exactly what I was thinking. She told me that she was ordering a battery of tests for Celiac, Diabetes, and a few other things. Knowing Celiac very well, I ruled it out in my head. Diabetes? Not so convinced either.
In addition to this blood test, Swati asked me to do another cleanse with Jackson this weekend. This translates into Jackson wearing a Pull-Up diaper, taking 8 Dulcolax over 48 hours plus double doses of Miralax every 8 hours. Not fun, but it works.
We went in for the Blood Tests today (our former vampire was not there this time to intimidate poor Jackson!!!) and everything went well! Jack was brave and only whined a tiny bit.
Swati seems to know what she's doing and for not having kids of her own - yet - she wowed me with her empathy. At the end of this visit with Swati, she gave him a toy, a sticker, AND a lollipop!
In two months we'll see Swati again. Something Jackson's excited about, because he can't wait to brag about how grown-up he was at the blood center.