Endoscopy Results on child

Last week, Toki attended a full week of school pain free for the first time in a long time. Last month was a really difficult month for us. I was often sending him to school even though he wasn't feeling well.

A couple weeks ago he had an endoscopy to find out what was causing chronic stomach aches. Symptoms included acid, nausea, and pain behind the belly button. He's also had congestion, rash, diarrhea, and was throwing up. Celiacs, diabetes, allergies, lactose intolerance, Crohns disease, and cancer were all conditions swimming around my head.

The results showed a stomach full of undigested food. His stomach looked like he had just eaten an hour ago and not 12. It turns out that he has no ability to digest lactose. He has zero production of lactase, the enzyme that breaks down milk protein. Anything with dairy will sit in his stomach and ferment.

I was surprised that this was the reason for so much discomfort. I thought for sure it would be a wheat allergy or Celiacs with damage to the villi in his intestines. She said she saw no damage to the villi. Fabulous new!

I've thought for a long time now that he might be lactose intolerant, so it hasn't been devastating for us. Now instead of some dairy he has none. When he got over his milk allergy, he began to have some milk, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream but those were certainly not his main foods......he just didn't have a taste for milk and the other things he just tolerated. He'll probably only miss the ice cream and shredded cheese.

An interesting side note. Chris gave Toki a priesthood blessing. In it, Chris said that his parents (us) would understand what he is going through to better help him. Both Chris and I came down with horrible stomach issues. I had the worst stomach pains and food poisoning symptoms. I was up throwing up but it wasn't because I was nauseous. It was because the food was not digesting and going down. I felt so full and the food just came up, everyone hour or so throughout the night. I thought for sure it was food poisoning and called some people we had dinner with the night before. Everyone seemed to be fine. Chris felt similar symptoms later that afternoon. The severe symptoms for me went away after a day and then I just felt full all the time for another few days. For Chris......it went on for about a week. Toki was going through the same thing. And of course, the other two boys......completely healthy and they never got anything.

The latest Lego creation.