Thursday, April 21, 2011

Update on Annabelle

Thanks everyone for your ideas and thoughts about Annabelle's shoulder pain. Last week she had a body scan done by a Naturopath. I was fascinated by the whole thing. All she had to do was put her hand on a sensor and the test was actually conducted clear from Arizona! At the same time we were on the phone with the lady and she was reading the results to us. I was amazed with everything it was able to sense! She was able to point out things that I hadn't told her and they were right on, like the sleeping troubles and exhaustion. Then she was able to explain to me how it was all connected to Annabelle's injury.
The first thing it showed was her body's stress level. A normal level is around a 7. Anything lower would mean the body isn't responding to stressors (or something like that, I can't remember exactly how she explained it) and anything much higher means your body is having to respond to too much. Annabelle's reading was a 28! Yikes! The other major thing was the test indicated trauma or injury to the neck, not the shoulder. Annabelle keeps saying her "shoulder" hurts, but also says her "back" hurts, but she really points to her neck. I'm guessing she only connects the term 'neck' with the front (throat) area and she refers to everything on the back as her 'back'. All the x-rays, which didn't find anything, have been of the shoulder area. She was also able to tell me exactly which vertebrae are affected. Fascinating!
I was also relieved to hear that it didn't hit on any kind of auto-immune disorder (arthritis). Good news! It also indicated her body isn't processing sugars well right now because her system is having to put it's energy into trying to heal her injury. Josh thinks I'm crazy but I came home and threw away all the candy I could find that he had stashed in the house. The girls got fruit snacks at church and that was the end of those. No more sugary drinks at grandma's house. (How dare I!?!) No more cookies for a while. And yes, it's true, that Easter Bunny will not be bringing any candy to our house this year. Josh is pretty sure I've lost my mind, but I'm desperate to get her feeling better. Annabelle is also deficient in many of the trace minerals so we're getting that straightened out too.
Although the test couldn't actually diagnose anything I felt like it was definitely worth doing. She recommended acupressure and then chiropractics for treatment. I think I have found a chiropractor that does both, but she hasn't gone yet. When she continued to lay around and cry out in pain I called her pediatrician and told her about the scan. She agrees that those might be good treatments but agreed with me that we should do an MRI first. Unfortunately it is quite the ordeal for a 4 year old to have a c-spine AND a t-spine scan. She will have to be sedated and the 2 scans with take a couple of hours on top of the 2 hours spent in the hospital before to administer the sedation and the couple of hours afterward in the hospital in recovery. It takes a special team to be there to coordinate all of this which meant it was scheduled almost 2 weeks out. I was OK with that until yesterday. She was so miserable and spent most of the day on the couch. I called the Dr office and tried to get the MRI moved up but they just can't get her in anywhere any sooner. So right now we are just waiting until the 27th and hopefully we'll get some answers. She may go to the chiropractor sooner, I'm not sure yet. I'm waiting to hear back from the pediatrician this morning on whether that's a good idea or not.
However I am seeing a bit of light at the end of this tunnel! She still has major jolts of pain when she does some things. For example she threw a bouncy ball with her left hand and that set it off. One day Layla stood up in her high chair and rattled it against the table and Annabelle's arm was resting on the table and that did it too. But I feel like we're ruling out a lot of things which will eventually lead us to the problem. Oh, and did I mention Josh is working out of town this week and next week too. It's probably a good thing because we're being awfully lazy around here. (Ok, I'm done whining)
Sorry for such a long post, and if anybody is still reading this you probably better go make sure your kids are still alive or you didn't leave the water running in the sink or something like that. You probably didn't expect to take 1/2 hour to read a blog post!

5 comments:

Shannon said...

I didn't leave the water running in the sink. :) I'm glad you are finding out some things! Keep us posted on the MRI and everything else!

Laura Neill said...

I'm glad you are making some headway in this! Poor little girl sounds miserable. Hopefully the MRI will be able to figure everything else. Did she have an accident or something where she could have hurt her neck/spine?? Keep us updated. Just try and relax and know you are doing the right thing for your little girl :)

Brooke said...

I'm glad you're at least on the road to helping her and know a little of what is going on. I can't imagine the stress of not knowing why your child is hurting. We'll pray that all goes well and she can get feeling better.

Anonymous said...

I am so releived that she doesnt have some nasty autoimmune thing! I do think the MRI is a good idea before you do anything else. You are such a good mom. Keep me posted. PS - When is you know who going to what not to wear????? Love, Auntie Penn

RJ said...

Wish I had some insight to share, but I'll just send our thoughts and prayers! And man, I'm with you on that whole sugar thing - the more I learn about the sugar the more I want it OUTTA my house (and loved ones' bodies)! It's a long article, but this was a fascinating and sobering read if you want to feel even better about your tossing of the candy! :)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=is%20sugar%20toxic&st=cse&scp=1