First term done

It went well. The first term. For everyone. Like I said in the previous post. It's really going well with us. Everyone's healthy, Peanut didn't even need to stay at home once due to illness so far this year. It really helps so much to have such healthy children. It puzzles me though, how someone with compromised immunity like Monkeyman can be so healthy. His bloodtests shows that 2 types of his whitebloodcells are always low in count, and that it falls lower as time passes. Both his neutrophils and his lymphocytes. The one dr speculated that his own body is destroying his neutrophils. In any case, somehow the rest of his immune system is coping with the extra workload just fine, so far Thank goodness. Unfortunately, she thinks this will change when he enters his teenage years. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

So let's see. We'll start with Mr N. He is fine. Didn't do too well in some subjects last term, and will have to really put shoulder to the wheel this second term. I will help him, hopefully if I spend one term working WITH him, I can teach him how to tackle and execute it himself. He does fine in tests, it's his homework that's lacking. He still got mostly A's, so nothing too serious that worries me. Next week is his EEG and neurologist visit. To say I'm nervous is an understatement. I'm sure he's fine though. I think. I hope.

Boeboe is doing so well, that her psychiatrist said we can go 4 months now without visiting her! When it goes well, it's 3 months. When there's something happening, it's 2 months. So being given a "4-month pass" is soooooo nice, I can't tell you! Not just the whole skipping of the physichal visit, but the comfort of knowing that it's going so well with my daughter. Both her psychologist and psychiatrist declared her doing well. And I see it too! Oh, it's never smooth-sailing. We still deal with daily tantrums, aggressive outbursts, defiance, self-pity, etc. Its just that for Boeboe, everything is normal, and what we deal with now is less than 6 months ago, kwim?

Monkeyman. The only one it never goes as well with. So we took him to our trusted GP a few weeks back. He said that for the reflux, it's time to go to a pediatric gastro-enterologist. About the tiredness, he said (after asking a lot of questions), that he believes it's probably a metabolic disorder, and that it may be that his body fails to successfully convert carbohydrates into glycogen (energy). So he literally runs out of energy. He described how that would make a child feel and acts, and it was spot on with how Monkeyman acts and complains about. So maybe, who knows? We're thus trying to slowly replace a part of Monkeyman's carbohydrate intake with more protein and a little bit more fat. Hopefully, in theory, if the body gets more protein it will have more energy. If the body can still convert protein and fat into glycogen. The thing is, what I learned from research so far, is that almost 100% of the carbohydrates you eat, is converted into energy. Almost 50% of protein is converted to energy. And only 10% of fat. So if most of the diet consist out of carbohydrates, a normal body has more than enough energy. But if the body for some reason can't convert this into energy, it will only have the energy it was able to convert from protein and fat, which isn't alot if you don't eat a lot of it, since only half could be converted in any case. So hopefully if we provide it with less carbs and more protein, there will be more protein available to convert, and thus he'll have more energy.

So far, it's very difficult to tell. We have only started with this 2 weeks ago. And he's been.... difficult. It's not that he's defiant. Far from it! He's too rule-abiding to ever go against what his parents and a dr tells him. No. The problem is that he doesn't have an appetite. :-( Still not. It started about 2 months ago, long before we started the diet. And one of the reasons we went to see the dr. So far, he has lost more than a kilo and keeps on loosing. Very slowly. About 100-200g a week. Which isn't enough to make the GP worried yet, but it's driving me crazy!! Why would a child suddenly stop eating like he always has, and thus start to loose weight? What changed? And why? And it's not like he has a lot to loose! He weighed 18kg when he was almost 6. By age 7 he weighed 20kg. By age 8, he was 22.5kg. And that's when he started to loose. Shortly after he turned 8. He's now down to 21.4kg. I'll keep on checking it. In the meantime, we have made the appointment with the pediatric gastro-enterologist, and will see her later in April.

So yay, 2 specialist appointments in less than a week again for us this month. Whoopee. :-( Sorry, I can't muster the energy to try and look at this with a positive attitude anymore. I'm just so tired of doctors and worrying about one of the children. It was nice to have had little of it (apart from the psychiatrist and psychologist) for almost a year. Blegh. Anyway. Deep breath. It's necessary, both upcoming appointments.

So tomorrow the new term starts. I'm looking forward to going back to work! It's gonna be a busy one. The kids are all also looking forward to school. Of course not the work, but seeing their friends, teachers, etc. again.