Bloodwork

One positive thing came out of the $30 co-pay to the GI we won't be keeping, and that is the blood work. We have not had an entire round of blood work done on Ellie for several months, and now that we have completely started GAPS with her, I wanted to see what her vitamin levels looked like.

The comical part of this is that I asked for the blood tests almost immediately at the appointment, including some specific vitamins that the doctor said he doesn't worry about as a GI doctor. He said something about how GI doctors only worry about fat soluble vitamins or something goofy, to which I told him I wanted them all run. He agreed politely, which I appreciated.

The appointment progressed and once he discovered that we had taken her off of the amino acid based formula and put her on bone broth soup, he was very puzzled. He asked questions like 'where is she getting her protein from?' and 'how many calories would that be?' He did not seem to care where I got my information from, but he was not fully invested in our appointment from the beginning.

At one point he was looking rather concerned about the answers I was giving him, and told me that he needed to consult with the nutritionist. He left the room, and we waited some more. Now the nutritionist in this office is fantastic. He is not completely on board with what we are doing, and is not familiar with GAPS, but he is supportive in general. All of this to say, I was not concerned. The doc returned to say that it was not possible to fully track calories in broth, so he would like to offer a round of bloodwork to check Ellie's levels. HAHA! I almost laughed outloud. That would be GREAT, I told him.

After the appointment we headed off for the lab draw and waited a week or so for the results.
And how did they turn out, you are wondering? Wonderful! In fact, her vitamin A level was elevated, meaning she may be getting too much. And all of her levels were as good as they were on the elemental diet, and some even better.

This was SO exciting for me! Even though there are decades of experience and research that have gone into GAPS and SCD, it is not been readily accepted by mainstream MD's. I could not help but doubt that her bloodwork would come back complete. But it did! Really? ALL nutrients provided on bone broth, meat, and zucchini? Amazing! That was more proof than I could have ever asked for.

On the flip side, I sort of wanted to go take the paper proof and rub it in the doctors face. I had to ask forgiveness for that.