When I picked Alena up from preschool/summer camp this afternoon she was so, so, so very excited. She ran to me almost screaming "...Mommy, Mommy guess what?! I had a Cutie. Smell!!!.." Ok, ok I know that sounds a little gross but then she literally made me smell her mouth :) Yup, it surely did smell like Vanilla-Chocolate Cutie!!! - Honestly, it made me teary eyed all over again...thank you so much, Teacher Meagan.
You wonder why this gets me so excited? Well, when Alena was first born I was just totally happy. One week later we were totally sick with worry. We had received this strange diagnosis of Classic Galactosemia and our little Applehead (as we called her) had developed E. Coli Mengengitis and Sepsis. It was pure horror. We did not know if our baby would survive. The following week she stabalized and we slowly researched what Classic Galactosemia meant. It was sombering what we found on the Internet. Next we looked what the diet for a child with Classic Galactosemia was supposed to look like. - I first did not think that it would be difficult. Just avoid cheese, butter, etc. Then I looked further and saw how restricted the Acosta diet really was. No tomatoes, no legumes, no apples, no soy milk, no strawberries and the list went on, and on, and on, and on...In my mind there was no way that I ever could send my child to school without a constant worry. So at first we were determined not to allow our child anything that remotely had any amount of Galactose in it. But then we got more and more comfortable..and here we are today...both children go to Preschool, both children eat every vegetable, fruit, and legume there is, both children even eat Paremsiano Reggiano, both children eat Soy Ice Cream...and both children have GREAT LEVELS! They are healthy little girls. Both girls LOVE school, and everything is A-OK. Of course, they may have more blood draws than other kids, and maybe see a physician a little bit more than other kids. But what is that in the scheme of things, from the point when we first found out about Classic Galactosemia. Really, its nothing. Its a piece of cake, and it only proves to me that anything can be accomplished just as long as we keep a positive attitude, are willing to try new things, and don't ever give up.
Yikes, I think I kind of got carried away with this entry.
