Dr. Saps visit

This afternoon we met with Dr. Saps. He is a GI - yes Shelby already has a FANTASTIC one here in Rockford - but he specializes in motility issues and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. He does not think Shelby has either of those. What he does believe she has is functional pain. He does not believe it is from her liver disease, but believes that it is aggravated by her body not being in "balance" from her liver disease. Make sense? Does to me. Basically, her abdominal pain would probably still be there with or without liver disease, but it wouldn't be this bad. She is being put on 2 new medications. One is for the pain and one is to try to eradicate any "bad" bacteria in her gut. He's not so sure that she actually has a dairy allergy despite her RAST test results. If we can get her gut pain under control then, maybe, possibly we can re-introduce dairy into her diet. When Shelby heard this she exclaimed "You are the BEST doctor ever!" and ran and gave him a huge hug. Along with her medication for the pain will come cognitive therapy (back to our beloved Dr. Jill) and possibly hypnosis. I'll have to research that one. Dr. Saps said he didn't believe it when it first came out that hypnosis helped, but the research results are very impressive. Shelby has to have an EKG before she can start her medication and have a gastric emptying study done. Dr. Saps also agrees that Dr. Deutsch is a wonderful and smart GI and he can manage Shelby's care. We'll check in with Dr. Saps to let him know how things are going. Good visit. Good plan. Now, let's pray that it works!