weight check...and then some!

Bostyn had a follow up doctor appt today with our regular pediatrician. The good news is that she has gained 2 pounds! She's up to 20.4 lbs. I think that's due to the sausage!! woohoo! The bad news is that it was time for her hepatitis A vaccination and I was really hoping she wouldn't have to get poked with a needle again. About 45 min after we left the office she started scratching like crazy and developing hives. I gave her benadryl and called the doc. Of course they were out to lunch and the answering service asked if they could just take a message. When I impatiently asked if there was a doctor on call I could talk to about the ingredients of the hep A vaccination she asked me if this was "some kind of dyer emergency." When I said "Yes, actually, it is a matter of life or death if there was something my child is deathly allergic to in it" she patched me thru to my pediatrician. She assured me there is no egg in the vaccination. But I'm still wondering what else may have been in it. To make a long story short, since she didn't have any breathing issues, she's on benadryl for the next 24 hours and a nurse has been calling to check on her. This will also be noted in her file and she won't be getting the last of the hep. A vaccination. Her hives are still there, but she doesn't seem to be bothered by them. Hopefully she'll be all clear tomorrow :/.

xoxo

Allergy Results

I spent nearly an hour at Walmart and another hour at the health food store searching for a food that had only wheat (and other foods we already know she isn't allergic to) to do an oral challenge this week with her because I just knew in my heart that the test results were going to show that she could have corn and wheat introduced back in to her diet (that's what the dr. had hoped for!)...I came up with only one option from walmart (organic saltines) and one from Akins (graham cracker sticks), so when her results came back that she was still highly allergic to them I didn't feel nearly as frusterated as I thought I would! She isn't missing out on much with those two. We got the results back on Tuesday and they are all a 3 or higher which means we can't administer a challenge at home. Peanuts and Cows milk were at a 6 (the highest number there is)..she will probably never out grow these. Eggs were at a 5, soy was at a 4 and corn and wheat were both at a 3. He forgot to test for tomatoes again, but since she has reacted so bad to them before then she is still probably highly allergic to those too. The doctor said we can try an oral challenge under hospital supervision on the corn and wheat in about six months if we want. The tests also revealed that her IgE levels are thru the roof which basically just says the test results are correct (there can be a lot of false positives with allergy tests). In addition, she has a ton of environmental allergies and her zinc levels are low. He put her on a zinc supplement which should help with her eczema and clear her skin up. He also gave us a website that sells lotion for people with very sensitive skin. She has been using it and looks great! Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers!

xoxoxo

Children's hospital visit

We just returned from the Children's hospital in KC today and things went good! We might get to add corn and wheat slowly back in to her diet but we will have to wait for her blood work to come back next week to know for sure and for a lot of the info we were hoping to get We did learn some helpful tips on how to manage her eczema and what to expect in the future with her allergies. The doctor also told us that we could put sausage back in her diet! I was so excited about that one, but I wasn't sure how Bostyn would do with it since she's such a texture person and it's been so long since she's had it! We were there for about 3 hours, then went to buy her some sausage and didn't get back to my aunt's house until well past her dinner time. I made her one piece to see how she would like it and had to cut her off after she gulped down 4 links! Then she ate the rest of the package (another 4 pieces) for breakfast! So for the first time in a looooong time I think the child is finally full! I'll keep the blog updated as to what her blood test results reveal!