So it’s official. We have allergies. Eve
tested positive for peanut allergies and the doctor recommended
avoiding nuts in general and we are now the proud owners of two
epi-pens. Bummer!!

The plan was for Alan
to stay home with Lex while I took Eve to the doctor. I tried
to get Lex in bed for a nap, but he wanted no part of it. When
the time came for us to leave, Lex was crying, “no mommy, don’t
leave me. I want to go too.” I was feeling a bit anxious about
the appointment and I think he may have been picking up on
that. So Alan decided to come along and the family went to the
doctor. Lex and Alan hung out at the hospital and ran some
errands while Eve and I were in the office.

Fun with
the camera and mirror.

Pretty
girls.

Eve was
a model patient, playing happily and letting the nurse and
doctor examine her. She didn’t even fuss when they wrote on her
back with marker and then pricked her back three times. I was
amazed. I was all prepared for screaming, but she took her plug
and cuddled into me and barely flinched at each prick. Then we
played for awhile (time has no meaning in doctor’s offices)
with the nurse coming in off and on to check on her progress
and measure her reaction (with a ruler). There was a big mirror
in the room and I entertained her for awhile with the mirror
and the camera. Then the blood pressure cuff hanging on the
wall became the object of desire and that killed some more
time. I hardly needed the bag of toys and books I brought for
her. The test itself consisted of three needle pricks, two
control pricks “to make sure the test is working” she said, and
the third actually contained the allergen. After awhile it was
determined that she had enough reaction from the allergen to be
considered allergic and the doctor came back with some
pamphlets and a prescription for the Epi-pen. For those of you
who haven’t seen one, it’s basically a big pen-shaped shot and
if she has a reaction from peanut exposure we have to take the
top off and jab the needle into her thigh, then rush her to the
hospital. Yuck!

See the
treasure map on her back? The top two are the positive and
negative control pricks, and the bottom is the allergen. I
think they put it off to the side because there was a chance
we’d have to do another one. We lucked out, I guess, not having
to do a second round. Her reaction was fast enough and clear
enough that no additional testing was necessary.

The
final verdict. They washed off the allergen after that. Not the
marker though. At bath time Lex said “what is on Eve’s
back?!?”

We
have a follow-up appointment scheduled in October to discuss
any issues or concerns we’ve had. The doc said we can cancel it
if we’re feeling super confident, but most people are full of
questions by that point and appreciate the follow-up visit. I
suspect I’ll fall into that category. Then we have to go back
again when she’s 3 (or 4?) and they run blood tests to start
tracking her peanut allergen levels and to try and narrow down
other nut allergies. After that we may be able to give her tree
nuts (walnuts, cashews, etc.) The doctor said that some people
do outgrow peanut allergies and that the milder the initial
reaction was the more likely the kid is to outgrow the allergy.
That sounds positive, but maybe he was just trying to soften
the news. Who knows.

So for now we have
some instruction books and “how to read the label” cards to
study, and the interesting task of creating a nut-free world
for awhile.

The good news is that my
concerns about her eczema and diary issues were unnecessary. He
said that if she can eat yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese and
other dairy products then she definitely doesn’t have a milk
allergy. Apparently cows milk changes the chemical content of
urine in a way that can cause rashes on sensitive skin. About a
minute into her appointment he mentioned that she has very
sensitive skin, hence the blotchiness and redness she gets
sometimes. So the diaper rashes she was getting after drinking
milk were probably a combination of the new urine content and
the general cloth diaper issues we’ve been having. She has been
rash free for a week or two now, so I gave her some milk
tonight and we’ll see how she does. The doctor also said that
although eczema can be allergy related, if it’s mild and not
itchy (which describes her’s perfectly) then it generally isn’t
allergy related. He said to treat it with lotion if I want, but
stop trying to link it to food or allergens :) One less thing
to think about anyway.

So that was our
day. Tomorrow we are off to pick some strawberries (weather
permitting, of course). I made a funky strawberry pie earlier
in the week and Lex is very excited to make another one. I’m
excited to make strawberry jam. If I make it sugar free I might
even be able to eat it and still follow my WW plan. I fell off
the wagon a bit with the stress from this afternoon. I’m going
to stop rambling now and add a few pictures. Then I have a
house to clean and two kids still awake! Lex fell asleep in the
car on the way home from the hospital (around 4:30) and Eve and
I took naps when we got home. I think we were all exhausted
from the day. So now it’s 9:20 and they are both still going.
Oh well. Maybe they’ll sleep in a bit in the morning
:)