Our Princess is complicated... (and not just because she's a girl)

Tia has many food allergies (see the complete list on the side bar), and that's complicated enough, as anyone who has multiple food allergies or cares about someone who has multiple food allergies knows. It is not easy navigating the modern world with food allergies. (Something tells me that the olden days, with straight forward, unmodified, non-processed foods would be so much easier.) Now, I'm not trying to one-up anyone, but unfortunately for us, our daughter has an added layer of complexity. She was born with a birth defect with a fancy-schmancy medical name which I will not attempt to butcher here, that caused her small intestine and large intestine to be disconnected.

Needless to say, this was weird.

She had 2 operations by the time she was 3 months old to correct this. But at that point, she was all hooked up like a perfectly normal person, and we thought the bad dream was over.

You ever watch those movies where, just when you think the bad guy is officially dead... HE JUMPS UP AND TRIES TO STRANGLE YOU!!! Well, not you directly, but you vicariously through the actress playing the damsel in distress.

6 weeks after the last operation that gave us a normal healthy daughter, she had a blockage in her intestine that prevented food from moving through.

Back to the Operating Room. Third operation in 4 months.

Needless to say, we were tired.

But, this time, they connected the small intestine to the large in a new and improved way which should prevent a future blockage from ever occurring.

You ever watch those movies where, just when the bad guy is officially dead for the second time... HIS EVEN MORE EVIL TWIN BROTHER JUMPS OUT OF THE CLOSET AND TRIES TO STRANGLE YOU!!

When Tia was 4 1/2 years old, 4 years after her last operation, she suffered another blockage in her intestine. This one was serious - there was another emergency operation and they had to remove 90cm of intestine that had died. By the way (BTW for you texters), 90cm is approximately 3 feet, or one yard.

Needless to say, holy shit!

So, to point out the obvious, losing 3 feet of intestine (roughly 1/3 of her small bowel) means there are ongoing digestive issues. Layer this on top of the allergy problems, and hopefully you get a sense of the complication we deal with every day.

Please don't think that I'm whining, or whinging, or playing the poor me card. I know that there are kids out there that are significantly worse off, and parents who deal with or have dealt with far worse situations. I feel lucky every day that Tia is with us, that she's basically healthy, that she will be able to live a full and complete life (as full as life can be without ice cream, anyway).

My main point, and the reason we started this blog, is that we have learned so much about the two conditions we deal with, that we thought we should share this with anyone interested.

Secondly, we know that, despite how much we have learned, there's so much more to know. There are so many unanswered questions. Questions that the experts, doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, allergists, Ouija boards, can't answer. Questions that only experience can answer.

Hopefully this is the start of something.