His lips are moving, but I can’t hear him.  The second the specialist says Latham is healthy, my head floods with water.  And the waves crashing in my mind make it impossible for me to listen to what the pediatric gastroenterologist is saying. 

So I squint.  And try to read his lips.  But I can’t.

I glance at David and hope he’s hearing, but when I ask him later to repeat what the doctor said, he can’t. 

So we try to put together our puzzle starting with the boarder and working our way in, and yet, we’re missing pieces – big pieces – and we don’t have the box to guide us.

When we get home, I call the Children’s Hospital and leave a message for the doctor.  When he returns it, he says he’s not surprised when I tell him I couldn’t really hear what he was saying.  He says it happens all the time when he delivers both really good and really bad news.  And he couldn’t be more thrilled, he said, to give us the really good kind.  Again.

He says Latham is healthy.  He does not have Cystic Fibrosis.  He does not have Celiac Disease.  He does not have Irritable Bowl Syndrome, food allergies, Leukemia, or any of the other awful diseases or conditions our toddler has been tested for.  What he does have:  Toddler’s Diarrhea, a condition that usually occurs in children between the ages of 6 months and 3 years, and causes loose, watery stools and severe weight loss.   Although Latham does have chronic diarrhea, the doctor went on to say, children with toddler’s diarrhea do have a normal appetite and grow and develop normally.

Latham has suffered on and off with chronic diarrhea and severe weight loss for the past 8 months and we’ve been relentlessly searching for answers to his health problems for just as long.  It has been a long and scary road for our family and we are extreemly relieved to finally have an answer to the problem that’s been plaguing him. 

It’s like I can breathe again.  And I didn’t realize I had been holding my breath.

I also want to thank all of you for sharing in this journey with us.  We appreciate your supportive comments, thoughts, and prayers, more than you could ever know.  Thank you.