I bet you thought I was going to write about the big game today...well, I think this will be all I will say: Congratulations, Seahawks! I have always rooted for the Seahawks, have always been a Seahawks fan, and will always be a Seahawks fan. The next seven months are going to be loooooong....but I'll make it. The end of the season makes me so sad! As I stated in my earlier post, I love football, so the season ending is kinda like losing my best friend...I'm not sure who I'm going to root for now, although Atlanta seems like an OK team. I'm NOT rooting for the 49ers...or the Patriots...and I'm not too fond of the Ravens...so, I guess Atlanta will be my pick!! And that is all that I'm going to say about football...the wounds are too fresh :)
NOW, onto my topic for tonight: allergies. Amelia was my firstborn...my precious little angel and my first shot at parenthood. So, at her one-year checkup, when her pediatrician said we could introduce eggs to her diet, we came home, make her some scrambled eggs, and got out the camera to document her new food step. It wasn't long before I noticed the single red dot on her face...a red circle with a little "white head" center right on her cheek. I looked at Brian. "Um...what is that?" thinking that Mr. EMT would know what was going on. "I dunno..." And then more appeared...on her other cheek...on her chin...all around her mouth...on her hands...I realized that she was having an allergic reaction and called her pediatrician who told us to give her Benedryl and watch her for signs of difficulty breathing...so much for a Kodak moment. They told us to never give her eggs again for a while. But there was still something not right. At 18 months we went in for her checkup and they gave her her immunizations for that checkup. The next day we woke up to a kiddo who was not the same Amelia. She screamed and cried and banged her head on the floor...she wanted to sit in our laps, but didn't want us to touch her. She would wake up from nap and scream for the next four hours solid. Brian was usually at work so I sat alone, usually next to Amelia screaming, tears streaming down my own face as I struggled to understand what was wrong. Amelia had reflux horribly from the time she was born and had been on baby Prilosec for most of her little life. I wondered if it was getting worse. Also, being that I work in the field of special education, my heart sank as I watched her perform the typical habits of children with Autism or Aspergers. My heart was a wreck as I took her to the pediatrician and told her that I was pretty certain that Amelia was Aspergers...Dr. Reimer smiled at me and said, "No, she's not Aspergers. Her language is better than mine and yours combined (Amelia was speaking in full sentences by 9 months old.) and she is very social." I immediately breathed a sigh of relief and then Dr. Reimer said, "But, I'm fairly certain she has Sensory Processing Disorder." I had heard of this before, but hadn't had any specific students or memories to draw from, so I was again heartbroken. You never want to hear that there is something wrong with your kid, but I knew I needed to get to work. Dr. Reimer wanted to rule out a few things first, so we went for an upper GI, which proved that she did indeed have reflux. The barium they gave her came up immediately. We also did a blood test for food allergies, which I knew egg might be on the list, but didn't think anything else would. The next night Dr. Reimer called me and told me to stop her milk immediately, that she was highly allergic to milk. She then requested that I make an appointment with her to discuss this. It turned out the Amelia is allergic to milk proteins, casein and whey. If you're curious about this, start reading labels to see if you find any form of dairy in food, and specifically casein and whey. When Dr. Reimer told me my first step was to cut out all foods with casein and whey in them, I put Amelia to bed, left Brian at home, and headed for the grocery store to find things for my baby to eat. EVERYTHING in the store had casein and whey...EVERYTHING! I called my mom from Aisle 5 at Safeway sobbing that I didn't know what my baby was going to eat...her favorite foods of all time: milk, cheese, yogurt...it was sad! But, to save her life and make her happier, we cut everything out. She would beg for cheese and yogurt...and we'd have to tell her "No!" It was a rough transition.
Months went by and we would be eating something and she would have a reaction. By the time we started preschool in the fall of 2009, her allergy list included eggs, dairy, pickles, maraschino cherries, tomatoes, and ketchup. We were slowly able to add things back into her diet and we challenged her allergies many times. We would give her a little square of cheese and stand next to her with her Benedryl and her EpiPen and hold our breath...as soon as she would eat the cheese her eyes and nose would start draining, hives would appear, and she would start coughing. We've never had to use her EpiPen...Benedryl has always done the trick thank God! But every time she eats, I'm terrified that I will miss something, or that we'll be at a restaurant and they'll accidentally put cheese on her sandwich. Once she reacted to halibut at a restaurant and we figured there must have been cheese or something that fell in the batter.
Amelia's best advocate? Herself! From the very beginning we have explained to Amelia that she could die if she is not careful. And she understands this. She is always asking and questioning...Does this have cheese? Does this have milk? Is this baked? What kind of frosting is that? She is amazing for five...even when she was two years old, she knew what she could and couldn't have. We went on a field trip with her class at the end of her two-year-preschool year. They gathered all of the kids for snack and the child who brought snack that day chose goldfish crackers and chocolate milk. The teacher handed Amelia a cup full of fish and she said, "I can't have any of that!" I've always been super proud of Amelia and how she handles her allergies.
This summer, Amelia was running around outside barefoot. She stepped on a bee and it stung her toe next to her big toe.. A few hours later she was telling me she needed a cane or something, that it hurt to walk on her foot. I rolled my eyes and told her to suck it up, like the kind, caring momma I am. As I'm tucking her into bed, I catch sight of her foot. It's swollen so badly I can't see her toes and it's hot a red clear up to her knee. We take her to the emergency room where they inform us that she is indeed allergic to bees also. That was when her pediatrician decided that we needed to see an allergist.
So, tomorrow morning, we are headed to the allergists office to do our allergy testing. Amelia is going with the hope that they will tell her we were wrong all of these years...I know that this won't happen, but I am going to be so relieved to be able to nail down exactly what she is allergic to...guessing is rough, and it's so stressful trying new foods and praying that she won't have a reaction. So, blog readers, please send us your prayers tomorrow starting around 8:00 a.m. as we head to get our testing. Pray the doctor can determine what her allergies are. Pray that Amelia doesn't have a severe reaction during the testing. Pray that all will be well! And, if you'd like, pray that Amelia will be able to eat cheese, because that's what Amelia really wants out of this :)
FOOD FOR THE DAY:
Um...I'm just going to say, "Thank God for our extra weekly bonus points." and plead the 5th...football food is the worst! I'm hoping the damage wasn't that bad... :) I didn't track, but my best estimate would be:
Pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw, BBQ Popchips, tortilla chips with bean dip, more chocolate chip cookies than anyone should have in one sitting, some crackers and cheese, and two beers...no idea how many points I ate, but with 41 daily points and 48 weekly points that I didn't dip into at all yet, I'm thinking I'll be OK :) So, yay for the WW program! That's why I love it!
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