Its Been Quite A Month

December has been quite the month.... even aside from Christmas.
Even though things have been complicated, over scheduled and a bit crazy I am looking at everything as a blessing.
Last week Nick was officially classified as being in remission - my son beat cancer!!!
We still have to go to the clinic to monitor his weight, be cautious about germs etc for the next six months and then have all of his scans repeated every 3 months for the next couple years (and then it moves to 6 months and then annually) but knowing that there is no active cancer brewing in there is a great feeling!
My wee Maxwell has been in the hospital for a week now (but we got a pass to go home for Christmas).
He has had some gastro intestinal issues since birth but we always just thought that he had reflux as a baby and then perhaps a lactose sensitivity like his dad but these "bouts" have gotten worse as he has gotten older.
For a while there would be upwards of 8+ weeks where he would be good and then all of the sudden the poor boy would suddenly begin to explode from both ends. This would happen for a few days and then in the blink of an eye he would be fine again. We switched him from milk to soy and then cut out all dairy completely, I looked for triggers that would set off whatever attacks these were but I never figured it out. Honestly I as so caught up in Nick that perhaps I wasn't as vigilant with my Dr. Mom investigating as I should have been but recently I noticed that the time in between these flare ups was getting shorter. I called our paediatrician and made an appointment for the new year but this most recent one was more then his body could handle. He lost 3 pounds from dehydration and fell off the growth chart landing him in the hospital with the status of "failure to thrive".
We were connected with the GI Dept and they have been vigilant about running tests. They are pretty confident that he has some sort of malabsorbation issue and his body simply cant process something but what they don't know. What we do know is that he tested negative for virus, parasite, lactose intolerance, cystic fibrosis and they are pretty sure that he absorbs fat OK (but the actual test isn't in yet). We are home until tonight and then we return to the hospital for more blood work, a barium swallow and the "gold standard tests"... a endoscopy, colonoscopy and biopsy.
It has been a challenge being away from home but these tests needed to be done and so for that reason I am feeling lucky. Nick has been a great guide for Max, showing him that their "red caps" match on their IV tubes and that the daily saline flushes don't hurt.
 Hopefully in the next week or so we will have some answers......
As for me - I turned 30 on Saturday. The age that I always equated with being "old". I am instead looking at it like wine only getting better with age. With age comes experience and thus a basis for knowledge and intellect. Maybe now I wont get the "your just a baby" comment when people hear my age and I have been told more then once that "30 is the new 20"..... Boy I hope that people aren't lying to me.