The visit to the GI doctor, now known as Dr. GI, was pretty stressful. The doctor is okay although I don't feel like he listens very well. He seemed unsure of why were there but once he saw my list of questions (an entire page of questions regarding the IgA deficiency and allergy testing) he spent a long time with us but still left us wondering what is going with James.

Dr. GI ordered some more blood work and a stool study (sounds like fun, eh?). We were relieved to hear that there are some new blood tests that can be done to determine if someone has Celiac disease or not. So, at least for now we will get to avoid the dreaded biopsy. Dr. GI said that James has lost 3/4 of a pound since his last visit about 6 weeks ago. He agreed to do some additional blood work that I requested to look at James' other Ig's. Everybody has 5 of them and since James is deficient in the IgA we should look at the others. I did not know until Dr. GI told us that James' IgG, the most common of the 5 Ig's, was elevated but for the life of me I can not remember what he thought that might be due to, other than a fluke. He also had increased white blood cells, but that probably has more to do with the virus he was fighting at the time. The blood test also include a gene test. If it's conclusively negative it will confirm that James does NOT have Celiac. The stool test was also my request (per the pediatrician that I love, see below) to look for parasites, blood, and check to make sure he is absorbing nutrients from the food he eats. Dr. GI is also recommending that we see an Allergy/Immunologist and a dietitian. I think Allergist/Immunologist is a good idea but I really dread seeing a dietitian. James eats fairly well, at least this week he is, and I just don't know what a dietitian is going to have to offer.

After we left Dr. GI's office we walked over to the Children's hospital following the instructions given to us by one of the nurses. She told us the wrong place to go so we walked around for a good bit before finding the lab where James needed to be. The lab is part of the Children's Health Center which is a distant part of the hospital. Regardless, the only people they treat are children and you would hope they would be "kid" oriented. The phlebotomist had the personality of a cock roach. She was all business and barley spoke to James at all. We wanted to have the stool study done at the same time but James needed to produce something to study and after pulling the blood his diaper was still empty so we decided to wait around awhile. The phlebotomist made it clear that she would give us what we needed to collect the poop in but that she would not help us. She gave us the containers and some sticks and sent us out to the waiting room. We tried giving James some applesauce, goldfish and crackers but after a good 30 minutes he still had not produced. About this time the phelbotomist came out and told us that the girl who registered us forgot to include 2 of the labs and so if we wanted them done she would need to pull more blood. Not only that but she had forgotten to include another test for the stool study and that it was pointless for us to wait around since the stool study needed to be done over a 3 day period. At this point I was on the verge of tears. I was so frustrated with the visit with the GI and now with this lab that I was just at my breaking point.

I walked out of the lab and called my pediatrician. They have helped us before with getting blood work done so I was hoping they would help us again. As a side note, I love my pediatrician. I have never ever received such wonderful medical care. One of the nurses has gone to bat for us several times with the insurance company and with another doctors office. They have always gone above and beyond what I would expect from any doctor. So, I called them. Crying. The receptionist passed me right back to a nurse who after looking up the tests requested by Dr. GI said they could pull the blood and send the tests out for us. She also said they could send out the stool study for us so that we would not have to drive all the way back to the children's hospital, about 45 minutes away. Did I mention that I love my pediatrician? Incidentally, when I got home I checked out the containers and test material to collect the poop for the stool study and the part of the test that is to be done over a 3 day period does not have any instructions and indicated I need some kind of dye to make the test run.

Overall it was a long and frustrating day. We ended up spending so much time getting everything taken care if that by the time we were on our way home it was almost 5 o'clock so we sat in traffic for over an hour. Thankfully James slept the whole way home.

We go back to Dr. GI in 2 weeks to get the results of the new blood tests. I take James on Tuesday to the pediatrician to have the rest of his blood drawn for the 2 tests the other lab missed. In the meantime we get to give James whatever he wants to eat including ice cream, whole milk, cream to dip fruits in, and anything else fattening that we can get him to eat.