Big changes are in store for the Leavitts

Our new home

What a crazy time we have had here at my place.  So many frustrations and hardships, blessings and changes we've had.  In the last year, we moved into a new home, had a daughter graduate from high school and move to college, dealt with the loss of my father in law, my nephew, and a good friend.

Taylor graduation

We have also had to deal with a lot of medical issues.  Over a year ago, Taylor started getting sick all of the time.  I took her to a dr. who literally told her it was all in her head.  Then, about 6 months later she started wasting away, and developed an awful skin rash.  She was sent to the school nurse on many occasions to have it "covered" since it looked so bad.  She was so sick!  The dr. finally ordered some blood work.  The first thought was that she had hepatitis.  Thankfully we were able to rule that out.  Finally, it was determined that she had mono, but it was so severe that they weren't sure if something else was going on.  After 4 months of severe illness, missing way too much school, she was sent to a gastroenterologist to figure her out.  They ran a lot of tests on her and gave us a bunch of strange possible diagnosis' (digestion disorders that would require a lifetime of liquid diets).

Taylor Senior Pic

 Finally they were able to determine that her gall bladder was only functioning at about 16 percent.  A few weeks before she was to move Mesa to start college at MCC, she had her gall bladder removed.  We hoped that would fix everything for her, and she would finally be able to enjoy what's left of her teen years.  It was so hard for Mike and I to send her off to college.  Not only had she been so incredibly sick before, she was only 17.  Taylor did pretty well for a little while but then started passing out at random times, her rash got worse and started spreading to her mouth and eyes.  She got a whole bunch of new doctors who were specialists in the Phoenix area, all of which said "we can't figure out what's wrong with you".  This May Taylor moved home to work and hopefully get fully recovered from her illnesses.  We think we have figured out what is causing all her problems.  This last week her little 4 yr old brother was diagnosed with Celiac Disease.

Jaxson!

 

  He has been having digestive issues for the past 2 years, and we can finally help him with them.

Taylor and Jax goofing off

Jax about to get an endoscopy

 All the research I have been doing leads me to believe that Taylor is suffering from it as well.  It is a difficult diagnosis to get.  Her rashes have been biopsied and showed no Celiac.  I'm not sure about her blood tests, but she will get some more done soon.

This is a hard disease to deal with.  I am working on wrapping my brain around all the restrictions and changes this is going to mean for my whole family.  I am planning on having all my kids tested, but regardless of the results, we will all be going gluten-free (hopefully it will help with Levi's asthma, Tristan's migraines and Jordan's constant stomach aches).  This is going to require a lot of planning, practicing, and diligence (none of which are my strong suits!).  It is also going to change a lot of our family practices (eating out, holiday dinners and traditions, eating at friends houses, birthday parties, bringing our own bread to sacrament!, etc).  Jaxson has had mini meltdowns every day as I have to inform him that he can't have some of his favorite snacks or treats anymore.
 It is also going to be hard to get Mike on board.  He doesn't even want to be tested let alone change his diet even more (he recently worked really hard and lost 40 lbs!).  In the long run I know it will be a very good thing for my family to learn together how to manage this disease.  It will also likely really help me along on my journey to lose weight and get healthy again!  I'm not the most positive person, but I'm going to try to make this diagnosis be the best thing that has happened to us in years!  I love my kids so much and want them to be and feel healthy and great.  Wish us luck!