Tummies and crossed fingers

Ari’s x-ray results were the best they could be in this situation – nothing truly wrong; just really bad constipation. As high fiber as 60 nuts/day appears to be, it’s a homogeneous and dense diet, and Ari’s body needs some extra help to deal with it. He’s on a daily double dosage of Miralax and increased water intake now, and seems to feeling mostly back to (the new) normal again.

While Ari’s tummy is settling down, mine is jumpy. We head back to SAFAR tomorrow for the boys’ maintenance testing (skin tests and blood tests). It’s been 9 weeks for Aviv, and 14 weeks for Ari, since they were last tested. Will Aviv’s negative test results persist? What about peanut – his last remaining allergy – will it go negative too? And the big tummy turner… Ari. Will he go negative to any of his three nuts? He’s longing for it, not understanding why it happened for Aviv and not him. We told him today that while we all hope for it, we don’t want him to be disappointed if it doesn’t happen yet. Sure. We can say that, but of course he will be. So cross your fingers and think good thoughts on Tuesday.

One final note… We had a ‘we’ve come a long way, baby’ moment yesterday at a potluck event at A&A’s school. As the boys were snacking freely from the buffet table (which they’ve learned to love doing), I spied a container of nuts that someone had brought to share. I stopped in my tracks for a moment, taking in the magnitude of difference… had I seen that a year ago, my blood pressure would have skyrocketed and I would have gone into triage mode… wiping down their hands, not letting them near the food table, being concerned that someone else around them would be eating the nuts (or just did, and then touched the chair/toy/etc. that A&A would then touch). Instead, I took a deep breath, took a picture (part of my chronicling of this journey!) and felt grateful for how far we’ve come. No wiping. No panicking. Just letting kids be kids. It doesn’t get better than that.