One year later . . .

Today is a very special day; it is Levi's 1st Birthday!!! I am reminded of a time when we were counting his age by days because each day was truly a miracle that he was still with us - now we can do it in years. God is so good! We are so thankful to everyone at Palmetto Health Richland. May each of you be blessed for your dedication, wisdom, patience, and love. A year later and I have still got his announcements sitting on my desk. My apologies. Please don't think we haven't appreciated all your support if your thank you card hasn't yet reached you either. We praise God everyday for the people who prayed for us and were there for us through it all. This entire experience has allowed us to focus on what really matters in this life. Praise God, Levi is doing amazing. Yesterday, he sat unsupported for the very first time by himself. Teddy and Naomi are great physical therapists and cheer him on as they demonstrate to him how to crawl to objects that they place before him. He loves people, books, music, rides in the wagon, swinging on the gondola swing with his siblings, pulling on the cat's whiskers, and hearing his own voice. He is so funny and intelligent (of course =] ). As we celebrate, please remember all of the babies in the NICU. Anytime you have an opportunity to support March of Dimes or your local Children's hospital we ask that you would. At this moment, hospitals around the world are filled with families that need your prayers and support.

Levi's Auntie Karen allowed us to have his 1st Birthday party at her beautiful home in Chapin. Despite the fact that Naomi became seriously under the weather upon our arrival, it was a very special time for us. I was determined that Levi would only be eating his Organic Gerber Green Beans while everyone else got to enjoy his cake because developmentally I did not believe it would be wise to allow him to eat it yet. Once he had that thing in front of him, there was no taking it away. I am thankful that I allowed him to fully experience a first birthday and he was very grateful also.

















Update for those keeping up with our EGDs: Yesterday, we visited Teddy and Naomi's gastroenterologist for their EGD results. At this time the biopsies and enzymes do not appear to be abnormal. He asked me to go back to keeping a journal of what they eat and how they respond to it. He felt that we would probably be in the clear as far as surgery on Teddy's pyloric stenosis as long as he did not appear to have any issues with indigestion or anything along those lines once he has completed his eight weeks of Prevacid. When we returned home, the mail had my EGD/biopsy results. (Teddy had was very ill over the past few days. I didn't want to leave him to attend my appointment so I had them mail the results to me). It appears that while my villi architecture appears to be normal (are at a normal length), their is definitely elevation of my IELs (intra-epithelial lymphocytes). My VTS (Villus tip score) was a 9. anything below a 2.2 is normal and anything 10 or higher is surely abnormal. "In many cases there will be associated epithelial cell injury leading in time to villus atrophy. Conditions associated with normal villus architecture would seem to represent a mild or early manifestation of Celiac Disease. " Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Jul 2006 by Brown, Ian, Mino-Kenudson, Mari, Deshpande, Vikram, Lauwers, Gregory Y. It seems that this is likely Celiac Disease at a pre-infiltrative stage (Marsh type 0). I really believe that it was the Lord who prompted me to learn about Celiac three months ago (it seems as though it has taken us an eternity to get through all the tests and come to this conclusion). 95% of people with celiac disease don’t know they have it. Find out if you might be one of them… Please visit www.celiaccentral.org to find out if you too should be tested. Any blood relative of mine should at least request that their doctor do a Celiac Serology (blood work). I know it will certainly be an uphill road to go Gluten-Free but it is a road I believe to be in my best interest. My children and I obviously eat the same foods for the most part so for now they will be going partially gluten-free when they eat what I do. This is likely to help us determine if gluten containing foods are indeed affecting them as well.