elimination

A few weeks ago- Gabriel started feeling very Ill again.  He didn't have energy, and lost his coloring.  He would frequent the bathroom, and flush before I can ask how it went.
Gabriel is old enough to understand what happens when he's not feeling well.  He knows that it begins with the doctor, tests, and ends with taking away another one of his few precious foods.  He's old enough to know that he hates the process.  But, Gabriel is still too young to understand that it has to happen.  Too young to get that it gets worse, and his body gets more sick if we don't do something.
So, we get stuck in this pattern of denying diarrhea, other symptom,  and lying about how he feels.

Rewind 4 weeks to our trip to Oakland Children's Hospital.  Gabriel was referred to a pediatric GI specialist.  Oakland is 2 hours from home, and 4 hours in early morning traffic.  With Gabriel not feeling himself, The doctor ordered a battery of tests, blood and stool samples to test what nutrients he was absorbing, and getting enough of, and which nutrients he was dumping, and not absorbing because of his angry GI tract.  The plan of action was to add 2 new medicines daily, add a high calorie nutrient packed formula to his daily regimen, and to follow an elimination diet. Elimination meaning eat only ONE food for 5 days, if he stays healthy, after 5 days we can add another one of the foods that are considered safe for him, and so on.  The goal is to isolate each food for 5 days sop that we can recognize when he gets sick, and which food caused it.  We are on day 19, and Gabriel is eating 3 foods.  We added a fourth, but it was unsuccessful (75% successful, yay).  I have let Gabriel choose which foods he adds, since he can only eat 3 foods, I'd rather them be his favorites!  We started with rice, and have successfully added beef and berries.  Luckily, rice can be cooked so many ways, and rice, rice noodles, and rice cakes all contain only rice and water in the ingredients.  We puree strawberries to make an 'ice cream,' and roll beef into meat balls, burgers, and serve steak.  We added apples, and Gabriel was sick once again.  He had diarrhea 10 times in one day(which caused hemorrhoids), was lethargic, and not himself.  He had a headache, stomach pain, and a nagging cough from inflammation in his esophagus.. OK, no apples it is.
Gabriel is most upset about our drive-thru trips to Starbucks and McDonalds.  On a long drive, or a special day, we would swing by our favorite drive thru's and get apple juice in the same cup as Mommy(a hot Venti cup), or pre-packaged apple slices and the occasional happy meal toy.  Gabriel is begging to add lemon as his next food, so that we can make lemonade.  I've been hopelessly trying to pursued him to try potatoes, or some kind of food that we can make many things from.   On Tuesday, we'll see what he decides.
Our samples of Neocate came in the mail.  I did not expect a nutritious high calorie, amino acid based drink to taste amazing, but luckily, Gabriel's not too picky.  Imagine, and thick milky like formula (if you've smelled baby formula, you know what I mean), now, imagine that mixed with grape flavored cough syrup. That is what it tastes like.  To top it off, it is incredibly expensive. About $120 for a case (of 27) juice boxes, and the recommended amount is at least 3 boxes a day. Every sip requires some persuasion.  "Please Gabriel, Ill cut up some strawberries if you take one sip!"or, "Ok!, we can watch the movie, but you have to take a sip first." And this continues all day long.
I was incredibly impressed when my sister- who has the weakest gag reflex I've ever seen- took a deep breath, a big sip, and gritted her teeth as she said "mmmmm, Gabriel, it's Gooood."
Gabriel, you will never understand how hard that was for auntie and her weak stomach to do, but just know, that she loves you very much.