Hi Owly, just a quick line, hope you and your mum are well.

think I told you my son went to see the counsellor at school a few weeks ago who said in her opinion he was 'clinically depressed'  and my husband and I were very angry as she is not qualified to say that.

we went to the doctors and the doctor said she did not agree with this persons opinion and thought my son was fed up and not enjoying his life because of his constant fatigue, and he had a blood test.

my son had another appointment with the counsellor and told her what the doctor said, and she was quite indignant and asked who his doctor was!

Finally got the results Monday and he has a raised bile level - 5% of the population have this without knowing generally, but fatigue, excessive thirst, nausea, headaches, shakiness etc are symptoms.  It's called Gilbert's syndrome as a french scientist discovered that some people lack an enzyme in the liver which processes the bilurubin in the blood and it causes a build up of bile.  I've often asked my son to tell me if he was smoking because of his yellow eyes, poor boy - he was 'liverish'!

anyway, I phoned this counsellor yesterday afternoon and left a message to say my son only wanted her to know - she rang today and said she would like our permission to tell the head of sixth form.  I said no, only if my son agrees and we had quite a friendly chat.  She said she'd never heard of it before, had looked it up on the internet and was surprised at how many of the symptoms my son had - I explained I hadn't wanted to put him through the pain of a blood test when it all started two years ago but he had taken urine tests for diabetes due to his great thirst, an MRI scan for his constant headaches and also had tests for Marfan's syndrome, none of which showed anything.  Nice chat, ended happily I thought. 

Anyway ........... my son came home tonight and said he'd seen her and told her she could tell the head of sixth form, but he was quite angry with her and didn't want to see her again. 

Seemingly she sat there mimicking my pronounciation, telling my son that I had pronounced it Gilbert's syndrome instead of the french 'Jilbert's'!  What a c+w, she certainly didn't like being proved wrong did she!

Such an ego centric smug person with so much power - I'm so pleased my son and I talk, if he hadn't have told me he'd still be exhausted all the time - now we have a chance to change his diet and hopefully improve his health - and one of the things is the taurine in Red Bull!

Know I can't tell you the website name but an on-line very lovely underwear/nightwear shop is selling flannel pjs for £20 for two pairs instead of £30 each - makes senza to buy some with christmas round the corner!!

Love Chamxx

Hi Cham,
I was quite shocked at the behaviour of the school counsellor and I think I'd be enquiring as to her qualifications or who I could contact about her conduct. Ridiculing you to your own son is bang out of order.

She should bear in mind that learning is a continual process in fact she herself only increased her own knowledge recently as a result of your information. Far from making fun of the way you might have mispronounced something she should be more aware of how much help she needs to become a more compassionate and less judgemental person.
How can she possibly do her job well with an attitude like she's got. Absolutely appalling behaviour.

At least it's good that your son now has a diagnosis which will hopefully mean something can be done to make him feel better.

It's ok to mention the website because you aren't going round posting on several boards about the same thing. Also we have a great board for just this sort of thing. People can post about products they recommend or ones they are considering purchasing. There is also a folder for special offers that you come across and would like to share.
http://messageboards.ivillage.co.uk/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=iv-ukntreviews&nav=start

Absolutely loved the sneaky introduction... lol

Take care you.
Hugs
Owly x

From Owly x

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