No end in sight!

Talked with Kennedy's nurse practitioner and it looks like these medications will be needed for the next year!  I feel like Kennedy is living her geriatric life at 6 years old.  We carry this pill organizer to keep track of all these medication.  This is how it breaks down:
VSL-3(probiotics)-$114.00/mos.
Lialda-$120.00/mos.(luckily I have a $120.00/mos. coupon from the manufacturer or it would be $240.00/mos).
Canasa-$108.00/mos.
Vitamin D-$10.00/mos.
L-Glutamine-30.00/mos.
Proboulardi-$60.00/mos.
Vitamins-$15.00/mos

Wow!  This is all so much and when it comes to your children you will go to the end of the earth to help them.  I am hoping to have Kennedy going on another insurance next month and possibly save us some money!

Stocked back up on mac and cheese

Kennedy received a shipment from a friend in Oregon today-24 boxes of gluten free mac and cheese.  We love Trader Joe's and don't have one in Idaho.  So sad because they have a lot of gluten free foods at a decent price. 

Round #2

Finally!  We got another stool sample today!  Now we can get this off to the lab and finally have some answers.  I made sure that I filled all three containers to the line so that they won't reject it this time!  I will make an appointment to see Dr. House in two weeks to get the results!  YEAH!  I can't wait!

Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients


1/3 cup butter

1 cup Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal

Topping

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2 (5 ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup peanut butter

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup whipped cream

Directions

1.In a heavy sauce pan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate chips. Remove from heat and gently stir in rice cereal until coated. Press into the bottom and sides of a 9X13 inch pan. Chill 30 minutes.

2.In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in condensed milk and peanut butter until smooth. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla. Fold in whipped cream. Pour into prepared crust. Freeze for 4 hours or until firm. Keep in freezer until ready to serve, and return leftovers to the freezer as well.

Celebrating Kennedy's Birthday in July

Kennedy broke her arm in May two days before her birthday party and we had to cancel it.  We told her that we would have the party later in the summer after her arm had healed.  We had some of our friends going camping with us this weekend and we decided that it would be a perfect time to party.

The girls all played a game where we tied one balloon to one of their feet.  They ran around camp trying to pop the others balloon.  The last girl left won the game.

  We also had a pinata that was filled with a lot of goodies.  Each girl got to try to break the pinata several times.  Finally it broke open and they gathered all the stuff. 

Potato and Bean Enchiladas

Potato and Bean Enchiladas


Ingredients

• 1 pound potatoes, peeled and diced

• 1 teaspoon cumin

• 1 teaspoon chili powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon ketchup

• 2 cups enchilada sauce(see below)

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 1 bunch fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped, divided

• 2 (12 ounce) packages corn tortilla

• 1 (15.5 ounce) can pinto beans, drained

• 12 ounces mozzarella cheese

• oil for frying

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). In a bowl, toss diced potatoes together with cumin, chili powder, salt, and ketchup, and place in an oiled baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tender.

2. Fry tortillas individually in a small amount of hot oil until soft.

3. Mix potatoes together with pinto beans, 1/2 cheese, 1 C. enchilada sauce. Fill tortillas with potato mixture, and roll up. Place seam side down in an oiled 9x13 inch baking dish. Spoon remaining enchilada sauce over enchiladas, and spread remaining cheese over sauce. Bake for 20 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

Ten Minute Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 2 tablespoons self-rising flour

• 1/4 cup New Mexico or California chili powder

• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

• 1 1/2 cups water

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/4 teaspoon onion salt

• salt to taste

Directions

1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in flour and chili powder, reduce heat to medium, and cook until lightly brown, stirring constantly to prevent burning flour.

2. Gradually stir in tomato sauce, water, cumin, garlic powder, and onion salt into the flour and chili powder until smooth, and continue cooking over medium heat approximately 10 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Season to taste with salt.

McCall, Idaho in the summer

Today we drove up to McCall and went to Payette Lake and Brundage Mountain.  Along the beach the water was yellow from all of the pollen.

Brundage Mountain Ski Resort in the summer.  You can ride up to the top on the ski lift and hike down or ride your mountain bike.  It was so nice seeing the mountain I grew up skiing on in the summer.

Kennedy's Check-up

Today we took Kennedy to see Barbie Doherty, CRPN for her 3 month check up.  Since our last appointment in April we have taken Kennedy of soy products.  We have been seeing Dr. House for a second opinion.  Kennedy has grown 1/4' and she looks so healthy.  Barbie was impressed and said that in the 18 months that she has been seeing Kennedy she has never had normal bowel sounds and today she did.  We are going to continue on a gluten/soy free diet and have another follow up in September.  Towards the end of the end we will plan on taking Kennedy back to repeat the biopsies of the colon.  We are thankful that we finally seem to be going forward.

Yummy Sloppy Joes

I used the bun recipe from Kinnikinnick.
Ingredients


1 pound lean ground beef

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard

3/4 cup ketchup

3 teaspoons brown sugar

salt to taste

ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1.In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef, onion, and green pepper; drain off liquids.

2.Stir in the garlic powder, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar; mix thoroughly. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Not a good specimen

Got home from work today and had an email from Dr. House stating that the lab had called her and we have to get another sample because we didn't have enough in the 3 vials we had to send!  Really?  WHY ME?  So now we have to start over and this time we need to make sure we do it right.  I will pick up another sample box next week and I am hoping that it doesn't take 2 months again.

Double Check the Food

When I went to pick Kennedy up from the daycare the babysitter had been concerned because Kennedy had really bad diarrhea.  She had noticed on the ingredients of the blue corn tortilla chips that they had soybean oil.  WHAT?  The night before we had went to the store and Kevin grabbed the Tostitos Blue Corn Chips.  Kennedy had eaten these chips for the last two days!  The Tostitos have soybean oil but the Tostitos Natural do not.  AHHHHH!  Will this ever get easy?

Finally got our stool sample!

When we saw Dr. House in May and she ordered a Comprehensive Stool Analysis on Kennedy.  We have been trying really hard to get the sample, but Kennedy has not been to excited to let us do it.  Finally tonight we got the sample and should have the results in 2 weeks! 

Comprehensive Stool Analysis with Parasitology Test (x3) (CDSA or CSAP) evaluates digestion and absorption, bacterial balance, metabolism, yeast levels and the presence of parasites. This test is used in to evaluate the cause of various gastrointestinal symptoms, or systemic illnesses, whose origins can be traced back to parasites or intestinal dysfunction.

Gastrointestinal (GI) complaints are among the most common reasons that patients seek medical care. Symptoms associated with GI disorders include persistent diarrhea, constipation, bloating, indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome and malabsorption. The Comprehensive Stool Analysis with Parasitology x3 may be used to assess digestive and absorptive functions, the presence of opportunistic pathogens and to monitor the efficacy of therapeutic remediation of GI disorders.

The Comprehensive Stool Analysis with Parasitology x3 is an invaluable non-invasive diagnostic assessment that objectively evaluates the status of beneficial and imbalanced commensal bacteria, pathogenic bacteria, yeast/fungus and parasites. Precise identification of pathogenic species and susceptibility testing greatly facilitates selection of the most appropriate pharmaceutical or natural treatment agent(s).

Kinnikinnick Buns

Tonight I made the Kinnikinnick buns.  It was super easy all I needed was milk and mix.  The buns were excellent!  I am going to try to make sloppy joes next week. 

No good flat bread

Well today I was so excited to try this new flat bread that I bought at the Boise Co-op.  I made the 6 inch subs and it looked and smelled great.  Not so much when we ate it.  It was really like eating a thick rubber band.  Not going to buy this.

CHECK THE INGREDIENTS

So my Mom and Dad took the girls to get pizza on Friday.  They went to Chicago Connection because they have a gluten free pizza.  We usually don't eat out because of the risk of cross contamination.  My Mom asked the waitress if there was soy in the crust and they looked over the list of ingredients and told her that there wasn't.  So Kennedy had pizza on Friday and ate the rest of the pizza on Saturday.  Sunday Kennedy had diarrhea and I couldn't figure out why.  On Monday my Mom took the girls shopping and decided to go to Chicago Connection for lunch.  She asked the waitress again to check the ingredients for soy.  She came out and told my Mom that there was soy flour in the crust!!!  This is why we don't eat out.  The employees at a restaurant should be more trained and aware of food allergy issues.  Now we are paying the price of eating soy again.

Boise Take Steps for Crohn's & Colitis Walk

We did it!  Kennedy's Crusaders raised $1765.00 for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation.  I knew that we had special friends and family and this just proved it.  57 team members showed up to walk the 2 miles to show their support for us.  We had the largest team at the walk! 

We all wore our team colors orange and purple.

There was also face painting.

There were also a lot of games for the kids to participate in.  I think that everyone had fun.

Kennedy's Kindergarten Graduation

Today Kennedy graduated from Kindergarten at Calvary Chapel School.

It has been a tough year and I was so proud of her.

The Class.

Kennedy and her best friend Miah.

The Girls.

NOT SOY GOOD

WOW!!  The more that I investigate soy the more I am going to avoid it for the whole family!  After talking to a friend that has had breast cancer and was told to avoid soy I decided to look further into the effects of soy.  Soy seems to be in everything that we eat!  These are some quick facts that I have found on soy.

Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.


Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.

Soy phytoestrogens are potent anti-thyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.

Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body's requirement for B12.

Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D.

Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.

Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.

Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys

Soy Free Chocolate

We found some Soy Free Chocolate and it was really good.  Most chocolate contains soy, but Boom Choco Boom does not!  YEAH!

Our Memorial Day Weekend

Well the weather was not perfect this weekend, but we still had a good time.  We had friends over for a BBQ and the kids roasted marshamallows.

Tie Dye Kennedy's Crusader T-shirts

Patty, Christopher, Abby and Izzy came over tonight and we tried to Tye dye for the first time.  We thought that it would be fun to have T-shirts for the walk next weekend.  We had a lot of fun and didn't even make that big of a mess.

Corn Free Tacos

We are trying to limit the corn with Kennedy due to the allergy test results.  It is hard to eat tacos without a shell or tortilla chips!  Tonight I baked potatoes and sliced them.  I added the taco meat, cheese, salsa and sour cream.  Not exactly a taco, but it was good.

Keeping Kennedy Still

It is not hard to keep a 6 year old down.  She has been running around all day.  I keep having to remind her that her arm is broken and she needs to be careful.  I am sure that I sound like a broken record.  London can tell that she is not feeling 100% and likes to cuddle.  Karleigh had a soccer tournament today and the weather was awful.  It was pouring rain and 40 degrees.  She had two games today and we have one tomorrow.  I am hoping that tomorrow there will be no rain.

Kennedy's 6th Birthday

Not the way that we wanted to celebrate Kennedy's 6th birthday.  She did make it a half day at school.  She really wanted to go so that she could give all of her friends a goodie bag that we had made.  I had to cancel her birthday party tomorrow with all of her friends.  We had planned a party with all of her friends at a farm.  The kids were going to ride ponies and play games.  Instead I made Kennedy a pizza and cake.  Papa Neil was here and we played BINGO.  Everyone at dinner and cake with their left hands so that we could be like Kennedy.  I think that she had a great birthday.

Day of Doctor Appointments

So today we had two doctor appointments for Kennedy.  First we had to meet with Dr. Angela House to discuss her blood results.  We found out that Kennedy is really allergic to soy!  This is great because for the last two weeks we have discontinued dairy and switched to soy!    She also has a significant reaction to flax seed and cantaloupe.  She also had a small reaction to corn and buckwheat.  The foods that she has a very low (VL) reaction to she should only have every 4 days.  This is all so much.  Now I am going to have to re introduce dairy and stop all soy.  Soy is in everything!  WHY!!!!!!

Her vitamin D tested also a little on the low side so we have added some extra to her daily dose of pills.

Our next appointment was with Dr. Jason Robison at Intermountain Orthopaedic.  He was amazed at how well Kennedy had broken her arm.  It is 20% displaced and he is unable to cast it because of the location.  We will continue to wear the sling for 4 weeks.  At that time we will go back for new x-rays to see how she is healing.  If that is looking good then it will be 2 more weeks in the sling.  If not he will have to pin the bone.  His concern is that Kennedy has a high pain tolerance and is not really affected  by this break.  We are going to try to bandage the arm down in the sling to keep her from using it.  It may be a long month.

Kennedy's First Broken Bone

Well what can I say!  Today started out as any other day.  Went to work and headed to Karleigh's soccer practice.  We had a BBQ at the park before practice and the girls played on the park equipment.  20 minutes before practice Karleigh and Kennedy were playing soccer when they collided and Karleigh landed on Kennedy.  I knew that something was not right when Kennedy didn't get right up to steal the ball.  She also had a different cry so I ran over and picked her up.  She complained that her right arm was hurting and she didn't want to play with all of the other kids.  I decided to take her to the ER and Kevin stayed at practice with Karleigh.  Two x-rays later it showed that Kennedy had broken her right humerus bone right under the shoulder.  The doctor couldn't believe that her arm was broken because she was in such a good mood during the hospital visit.  They put her in a sling and told us to call the orthopedic doctor in the morning.

Karleigh at Soccer Try Outs

Tonight was day two of try outs for FC Nova Soccer Club.  Karleigh looked awesome and we should know in a couple of days the results.

Peanut Butter and Honey Pizza

It is pretty hard to eat dairy free and have pizza.  Tonight I made Kennedy a pizza with peanut butter and honey.  It was a hit.

Hiding Aloe Vera Juice Smoothie

I am having a hard time getting Kennedy to drink the aloe vera juice.  Tonight I made her a soy yogurt smoothie and she actually drank most of it.

Day at Wahooz

Today we spent the day with Uncle James and some friends at Wahooz Family Fun Center.  Karleigh had a lot of fun on the bumper boats and go karts.  Kennedy is a natural at golf.  She beat everyone.

Last Dragon Soccer Game

Today was Kennedy's last soccer game. It is bitter sweet because I am ready for a break, but I will miss all of the games.

Dairy Free Milk

We are trying all different kinds of dairy free milk.  Hemp milk would be good to make gravy with.  Coconut milk, rice milk and Almond milk are good on cereal.

Swan Falls Dam

Kevin took the girls for a picnic at Swan Falls today.  The weather was finally nice.

The Dragon's Soccer Game

Kennedy had another soccer game this morning.  It was cold, but they played good.  She had 3 goals.

Calvary Christian School Track Meet

Today Karleigh's school participated in a track meet at Nampa Christian.  The wind was blowing and it was cold.  Luckily they sold hot chocolate to help warm up.  She was in the long jump, triple jump, 400 meter relay and the 100 meter run.

So after today's visit to Dr. House I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  I feel like Dr. House is looking at the big picture with Kennedy.  She has recommended a dairy free diet for three weeks.  It will be hard to not have cheese.  Kennedy likes soy milk and almond milk so that won't be hard to switch.  We had some blood work done after the visit that is being sent off to Illinois for an in depth food allergy test.  Should have those results back in 2-3 weeks.  We also need to do a different stool sample test that will be sent back east for a better look at how Kennedy is processing food and bacteria count.  We also are going to check her Vitamin D levels and iron deficiency.  Those labs are done locally and should know next week.  We are also going to try Omega 3 Capsules, I-Glutamine, Proboulardi and aloe vera juice.  I have a good feeling about this working.  Our next visit with Dr. House in May 26th and I hope that we have noticed a difference by then.

Peine Osteopathic Medicine

Tomorrow we are taking Kennedy to see Dr. Angela House.  I need to get a second opinion and maybe have some additional resources for diet.  I hope that Dr. House has some answers that we are so desperately looking for.  I just think that we are missing something and I want to make sure that we do everything possible for Kennedy's sake.  I have never resourced an osteopathic doctor, but I am now willing to try anything I can.

Peine Osteopathic Medicine

Dr. Angela House’s goal is to help her patients live longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives through improved nutrition, lifestyle modification, and stress management. She uses these methods to help patients with weight problems, as well as diabetes, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, gastric reflux, food allergies (i.e. celiac disease/gluten sensitivity), and many other chronic illnesses. She also specializes in treating thyroid, adrenal, and other hormonal problems using a holistic approach known as Functional Medicine.
During her years of practicing family medicine, she recognized the difficulties and frustrations patients with chronic medical issues face if they wish to treat the underlying causes of their conditions rather than suppressing the symptoms. She works jointly with her patients to improve nutritional status, identify underlying causes of symptoms, and treating those symptoms with a whole body approach.

Her unique whole body approach begins with a comprehensive history and physical, taking into account all of her patients’ current and past medical conditions as well as the genetic, nutritional, and stress-related origins of these illnesses. She also performs a sophisticated body composition study (BIA) and any other necessary diagnostic tests. She then provides detailed dietary recommendations tailored to the specific needs of each individual, and may recommend nutritional supplementation if necessary. Patients are closely monitored and re-assessed throughout the process to facilitate and document the improvements in their blood pressure, blood sugar, and other measurements of health status.

Tater Tot Tacos

Ingredients


• 4 cups frozen tater tots
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded lettuce
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• guacamole
• ½ cup salsa
• 2 tsp. cumin

Directions
Bake Tater Tots according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in salsa and cumin and allow simmering. Divide Tater Tots between four serving plates or bowls. Top with taco mixture, cheese, lettuce, guacamole and sour cream.

Weekend Filled With Soccer

Kennedy's soccer game this morning in Boise at 10:00 a.m.

Karleigh played in the Performance Cup Tournament this weekend.  The weather on Saturday was awful.  We had rain, wind and cold temperatures.  Sunday the sun was out, but there was a lot more wind.