High School and Gluten

Aaaaand they're back! Hooray. School has started. Declan started high school without much ceremony. It was pouring rain on the first day, and even though he had asked me to drive him to school, instead of catching the bus, I ended up literally throwing out of the car, in a line of other parents doing the same thing, with the advice of "Just follow the other kids!" He caught the school bus home with his friends that afternoon, instantly transformed into a teenager. Now he and Simon catch the bus together every day, leaving the house with the offer of the sides of their faces for a brief kiss before jostling each other through the door. Ruby is now the only one at primary school, and I don't even have to go in with her in the morning. She scrambles out of the car with a "Bye Mum!" and as long as I give the obligatory toot of the horn she is content. Gone are those days of her clinging to my leg for dear life as the teacher tried to prise her fingers off me.

I'm on two weeks leave and it's lovely. By 9am the house is quiet and it's just me and Josie, who lies by my chair and follows me around, always with the hope that I might possibly be going to give her something to eat.

In a couple of weeks Ruby has an appointment with a gastro-enterologist in Sydney. Although taking her off lactose last year seemed to help a bit, the tummy pain issue continued, and I ended up taking her back to our paediatrician. He ordered more blood tests, put her on a course of flagyl for 2 weeks and then a course of probiotics. And lo and behold, this time the blood tests showed something. Although the coeliac serology came back negative, her IgA level was very low. This means that the other tests are invalid, and may be a false negative. Apparently people with this low level of IgA have something like a 20 times greater chance of having coeliac. So the paed advised that Ruby needs to have a biopsy of her small bowel, but in the meantime, while we wait for the appointment, to put her on a gluten free diet.

The difference has been remarkable! The tummy pain stopped completely within a few days. Her behaviour modified and she started sleeping consistently through the night. It made such a difference that even Ruby was happy to give up foods she loves, because she had felt such an improvement. All fabulous, except that now she is back on gluten, so that when we go to the specialist in a few weeks, they can do the tests properly. When I told Ruby she would have to eat gluten again she cried. Within 48 hours her behaviour was atrocious and she had a 2 hour, screaming tantrum. The tummy pain is back.

Part of me thinks, screw the biopsy! But it is important that we know if it is clinically coeliac or just an intolerance. Either way, we will be going back to gluten free once it's done.