Asher Update

Asher has been eating pork for the past five days. I'm terrified to jinx it by saying anything and my fingers and toes are all crossed in the hopes it brings good luck. So far, we haven't had reason to stop the pork trial, so that's good news.

Yesterday, the boys went to a friend's birthday party. While getting ready to go, I had thought about what to do with Asher when the cake was being served and figured that I'd bring the Dum-Dum lollipops. They are allergen-free. My thought of Asher eating pork while the other children were feasting on cake and ice cream and juice was - well - was that it seemed really sad.

But in my rush to get to the party on time, I forgot the lollipops. We got to the party and when cake time arrived, Asher runs up to me and asks for his pork. Poor kid, he really wanted the pork. Every bit of distraction failed. He REALLY and TRULY WANTED THAT PORK. Little slivers of pork are Asher's treats. How absolutely incredibly sad.

So here we were playing in the gym, jumping on the trampoline and the ball pit (Well, Asher was jumping in the ball pit) and people kept coming up to us and asking if we wanted cake. And each time I said, "no thanks", I just felt sadder and sadder for Asher.

But now let's talk about good news:
1. His EE is under control. For the first time in Asher's life, his EE is under control. Just that is cause for celebration - woo hoo!

2. The first week that Asher began the elemental formula, I felt someone had to call the child welfare authorities on us. But then, during the second week, Asher underwent a transformation. He became a different kid. His energy level increased dramatically. He started climbing the furniture because he just didn't know what to do with his newfound energy. I used to call him my "teen-ager in training" because he was so difficult to get out of bed. Now, most days, he bounces out of bed in the morning and is raring to go. The dark bags under his eyes are gone. He seems to have more focus on tasks. Now we know what Asher SHOULD be like. Because he has always suffered with EE, we have never seen how he SHOULD be.

If nothing else, the trial of elemental formula has been a gift because now we know Asher's baseline.