Frustrated

This post is about a week behind in publishing, but it has been crazy in our household the past few days!  First I was sick, then all kids ended up with pink eye, and we ended it all with a little touch of the stomach flu.  Lovely!!!
I'm glad I was delayed in writing though, because it gave me a chance to calm down a bit and recompose myself before going on a rant. 
Little girl had a rough week and pulled quite a bit on both of her brows again.  It always makes me a little upset and sad when she has a bad episode but I try to hide it the best I can so she doesn't feel bad about it.  There wasn't anything in particular that triggered it, unless her eyes were getting itchy from the pink eye and one thing led to the next... But what was most frustrating is that she deliberately took her gloves off and went back to bed without them TWO nights in a row!  I know she has a hard time falling asleep sometimes so we take extra time to rub her back until she's relaxed.  But when she wakes up in the middle of the night it's impossible for me to help her unless she tells us.  We've told her many times to just come in our room if she's having a rough night and we won't get mad at her, we're here to help her.  But, it just goes to show how powerful trich can be, and how it literally takes over and in a matter of 5 minutes, all the hard work goes down the tubes.
Prior to this episode she had been doing OK, mostly just pulling the lashes.  I rarely even notice it anymore because I think I've gotten used to the way she looks without them.  Her brows were almost completely grown back.  We've been on a gluten free diet, going on 2 months now.  I've read that it can take up to 6 months for the gut to heal from any gluten damage so I'm not completely giving up on it yet.  She is still on the pro biotic and NAC daily.  I'm making a second attempt to give her the Calm PRT, which is a supplement to calm her down before bed.  Since she is waking up at night, I'm hoping this will help her stay asleep.  The problem with it is that it tastes horrible.  It's in capsule form, and since she can't swallow it I have to break it open and mix it with something.  I've tried ice cream, applesauce, and juice and no matter what you can taste it.  I told her she's just going to have to suck it up and chase it down with milk.  So far she is being a little trooper about it.
Coming up we have a few appointments with Miss Brigitte and I think we should see the ND again to get an update from her as well.  Updates to follow!

The Happiest 5K on the Planet

Little girl and I did the Color Run again this year!  This is our 3rd year in a row, and it was probably the best one yet!  As I have mentioned in past posts, my daughter has endless amounts of energy.  This was a perfect, fun way to burn some of that energy off.  We thought we'd just walk but most of the way she kept yelling "Come on!  Let's RUN!"  So we'd take off running to get doused in colorful powder. By the end of it we looked like we ran through a rainbow.  We were a mess but it was totally worth it!

Gluten Explained

We have decided to take another stab at a Gluten Free diet!  We noticed once she was consuming wheat bread again, her pulling was worse.
Here is a really good video breaking down what GLUTEN really is and how it can affect our brains.  I really like the way this guy explains it.

Gluten Explained

When the Gloves Come Off...

So Little Girl has been doing pretty well overall.  She still pulls but not like the first time where she took it all off in one day.  Her brows were growing back really nicely but lately they have been at that length where it's really tempting to pull again.  She hasn't been able to pull all that much because we've had her in gloves at night.  Lately she has been waking up at some point in the night and taking her gloves off and pulling at her brows.  She has a pretty nice chunk going on one of them now, and looks like she's taken a few out of the other side now too.  Her lashes have been pretty much gone for a while now but I guess I don't even notice it anymore since I'm getting so used to her without them.  But the brows!  Not the brows!!! 
We've had her on NAC for just over a month now and I have heard others say it takes up to 8 weeks to notice a difference.  It's exhausting to remember to keep her on all these supplements, and extra frustrating when you see all that hard work go down the drain in one night.  The gloves were our savior for a while, but what do you when the gloves are off?  Try try again...