I Wouldn't Have Jinxed it Anyway....

I was reluctant to blog about Bug's visit to Dr. Wood last week. When we got his allergy blood work results I was super excited to see that all of his numbers, except egg, had gone down. This is what we're hoping for. The numbers continuing to go down in his young years are a good indicator that he'll outgrow his food allergies.

We had a great visit with Dr. Wood. They're really good about listening to all of your questions when they come in and examine the kiddo and then coming back with Dr. Wood and answers to all of your questions. Dr. Wood is good at reviewing Bug's history and explaining the way ahead. The way ahead this year was to do an at home introduction of dairy and to schedule an in office food challenge of peanut.

That appointment was last Tuesday and we were full of cautious excitement. We started the introduction of dairy last Friday. We were directed to introduce him to a foods that have dairy in the last third of ingredients. He tasted plain gold fish and didn't like them but luckily I had also gotten Vanilla Wafers and he loved them. A full serving was 8 cookies. On Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday he ate a full serving. Tuesday he only ate one cookie and Wednesday he only ate one cookie.

And then it happened. I got a call from the school that he had gotten up from his nap and was throwing up. This didn't sound like their normal phone call when one of the boys was sick, it wasn't what they said, just the tone of the call. Luckily we're only about 1o minutes away from the boys from where we work so I left and got there quickly and when I walked in the administrator said that they were really confused by what was going on. He was in the class with one of his teachers who remembered that Bug like lotion like the father on My Big Fat Greek Wedding likes windex. They were trying really hard to calm him down and she was putting lotion on him to help calm him. They knew he hadn't eaten anything he's allergic to which is why they were so confused. I packaged him up and put him in the car.

I stood by the car for a little bit after I put him in and was really able to take notice of how off his breathing sounded. That plus the coughing really didn't add up. I knew had had been having strep throat a lot recently but this just didn't feel right. I was debating what to do.

As I drove away and waited at the traffic light I decided that I really didn't like how he sounded. I gave him some benadryl and continued to listen to him on the way home. By the time we got home most of the coughing subsided. I was still questioning what to do but know well enough to just keep an eye on him and get him with the epi if I need to. That's when I decided it was an allergic reaction and was just shocked that it was mildly anaphylactic. He even had a few hives on his cheek and we've never seen him get hives, just eczema. It was also hard to tell if his face had been swollen since he was so upset.

The rest of the afternoon I sat with him on my lap. I called Hopkins and consulted with them about what was going on and they said they've found this in their research. I was just so stunned that he could have an anaphylactic reaction six hours after ingesting something but I guess it can happen when you're trying to introduce a new protein for the body to digest day after day. His body pretty much said, nope that's enough of that. Hopkins was great and say that we can drive the way ahead. I was definitely happy one Daddy got home so we could have some other eyes on him but he was great about being by the phone at work all afternoon to keep me calm; I was super worried!

We gave him benadryl and zyrtec before bed and kept an eye on him all night. I barely slept, I'm a worrier like that!

The next morning we took him to see his pediatrician to make sure it really was an allergic reaction and not a virus. She confirmed that it was most likely an allergic reaction. Bummer.

So that's our first experience trialing milk with Bug. Not a success. Looking back, it was probably bugging him from the first day. He said his tummy hurt the first night after he went to bed but it was hard to tell if it was because he gulped his milk down (his soy milk) or that he just didn't eat a lot or what. He also had eczema the next day and we were directed to push through any eczema, so we treated it and he seemed fine when he woke up the next morning. Now he's left with a bit of eczema that will go away in a few days and hasn't asked for the cookies once.

Bug's eating habits are not ideal. He doesn't eat a wide variety of foods and is always reluctant to try new foods. It's no wonder. We were told not to worry about it last year at his annual visit to Hopkins, that food allergy kids often have an innate fear of food. I'm glad he was willing to try the new food. It's disheartening that he had that reaction but we still have hope that he will outgrow the milk allergy by the time he starts kindergarten. His RAST number for dairy has gone down every year. Hope is good!

So, over the next few months we'll have the opportunity to let him try the fruits he should be able to have now and worry about dairy again next year. He'll also get scheduled for a food challenge for peanuts to see if that is a true allergy. Maybe we'll do the same for dairy, but for now, we're ok not having it in the house and sticking with what we know!

Happy New Year and What We Did On Our Winter Vacation!

Of course too much time has passed again since I have update the blog. This blog update won't even have pictures to start with, I'm just that far behind. I always find it interesting after the holidays the list of people I wanted to at least send a card to that I just ran out of time. For example, we really wanted to send something to our peds office and it just never happened. I'm hoping to send a happy new year something nice in the next week.

I haven't re-read my last blog post to see where I left off so I'll start where I think I left off!

Roo's asthma medicine has been working really well. The day we stopped giving him the rescue inhaler he coughed a bunch when he went to bed, I gave him the inhaler and since then he's been doing well with the daily inhaler. He goes back to the pulm next week so we can talk about his progress and make any necessary medicine adjustments.

Before the holidays I was thinking about how it's been a year since I herniated a disc in my back. That combined with some holiday stress was enough to bring on some back pain. I called my pain doctors office and let them know what was going on and how the back pain usually goes from some to minor to not being able to walk the next day. They called in some pain meds and muscle relaxers. After I finished grocery shopping for Christmas and changed into my pajamas I took the medicine. Within a half hour I wasn't feeling right, mostly just really tired but still off, we headed up to bed but I stopped for a drink of water along the way, the first clue to the husband that something wasn't right. And then wham. I was out like a light. I've gotten so much better feeling the fainting coming on but this time it hit me like a ton of bricks and I hit my head on the oven on the way to the ground. Good thing, it broke my fall and I didn't hit the counter or floor full force. The next day, the back pain was gone. I flushed the pain meds, too scared to take that high a dose ever again!

This year the boys really enjoyed celebrating both Hanukkah and Christmas. We had a nice family Hanukkah dinner on Friday and the boys enjoyed lighting the candles and saying the prayer every night. They of course enjoyed the presents but we were able to not go overboard and begin the discussion that the holidays aren't all about presents. Their favorite surprise was the box of Transformers from the Bloobs. Grandma and Grandpa also got them some super cool gifts including a Buzz Lightyear bicycle for Bug and an "ipad" as Roo likes to call it (Innotab).

The Sunday before Christmas I took the kids to brunch at the club where grandma and grandpa live. Bug was awesome about eating the food I brought for him and the boys were really well behaved the entire time. We decided to make it an annual tradition. Plus, who can pass up brunch!

Daddy's family came for Christmas week and my family joined us for Christmas day. The boys really enjoyed preparing for Santa on Christmas eve and left food out for Santa and his reindeer. Christmas day the boys enjoyed opening their gifts with all of their grandparents together in one place. The boys had fun playing with the presents the entire week they were off from school. One of the best surprises for the boys was the arrival of their cousins Maddie and Annabell. Roo had no idea they were coming, if he did, he wouldn't sleep for days ahead and would be crazy Roo. The kids had a ton of fun playing with each other and the boys were for sure worn out by the end of the week. For all of the girls calmness, the boys ran around like crazy crazies. It was great seeing everyone and especially great seeing all the kids play together.

One of the best surprises for me was the awesome DSLR camera the entire family surprised me with. I knew Daddy was up to something but was never able to figure it out and was so excited to see the exact camera I've been wanting for about 2 years now in my hands! We played with it a little bit that week and it takes amazing pictures. I'm going to go over all the CDs that came with it so I can start taking advantage of all of its awesomeness!

During the week we all took a trip to the Air and Space Museum at Dulles. Roo was not at all into the trip and was a bit difficult the entire time. Bug wanted to be carried the entire time by mommy only. When everyone was going up to the observation tower I took the kids out to the car so everyone could take their time and enjoy the rest of the museum. The SR-71 and Space Shuttle are always amazing to see and of course the boys were excited to point out the Transformers exhibit.

Over the holidays I also had a chance to catch up with Joi and Mark when they were in town. It was great to catch up and I love that even with the distance between close friends like Joi it's like we're never out of touch!

Family had all left by mid day New Years Eve Day and since Bug had been up a lot the night before with an upset tummy we ordered Chinese and had a relaxing New Years at home, we even went to be early! The Chinese food didn't agree with me but luckily that passed quickly enough that I was still able to get some sleep that night. I hadn't had Chinese food in probably at least six months so I don't see myself having it again anytime soon. We've also decided that we need to cut out McDonald's as our "easy" out and about alternative for Bug. It was always nice to know that we could get him food there if we needed but several times recently it seems like it isn't agreeing with him or possibly even giving him a bit of eczema or a hive or two. I'm not upset about cutting out McDonald's at all, it will just make our long trips require a bit more food planning.

This week ended up being a bit more crazy than we expected. I got a new car on Monday. My back has been hurting so much driving my van that I finally gave up and got a new gas guzzlin SUV. I couldn't be happier with how comfortable it is, it's like night and day and my back thanks me! The boys went back to school and we went back to work with the New Year goal of earning more extra time, something that we know is totally out of our control. On Wednesday afternoon just a bit before we were going to leave to get the boys the school called and said Bug had a fever. When we got there he was acting totally normal and I asked why they took his temperature, his teachers said because he said he wasn't feeling well. They remarked that he was acting fine and they were shocked when it was above 102. We debated whether or not it was a real fever but that night proved it was real. I took Bug to the ped and he was diagnosed with strep. The swab made him throw up and he threw up all over me, fun! I remarked to the ped that Roo had a rash earlier in the week and that it was already gone. She said to look in his throat and if it was red or has little pustules to call her and she'd call in antibiotics for him. Sure enough his throat was yucky strepy. Amazing the difference between the two kiddos. I don't know if we would have ever known Roo was sick if Bug hadn't gotten so sick, so we're grateful for that. And, we're also excited to have our kick germ butt fighting Roo back after the fall he had!

So, I'm sure I've missed out on some details and I know once I go through all my pictures I'll figure it out. Hopefully I'll get the pictures posted soon. Happy New Year!

Gobbles & Muffets

Today I took Roo to the doctor for his never ending cough that seems to never end. We had a really fun day together and on the way home I was telling him that we are planning to go to the movies on Friday with Uncle Matt. When I told him what we'd be seeing he said, "I don't want to see the Muffets!"

Daddy took Bug to the ENT for his ear tubes post-op today. His ears look perfect. He was fitted for ear plugs for swimming and afterwards he told the doctor and nurses that he needs gobbles for the pool!

Tonight at bathtime, bug played in the tube with Roo's gobbles while wearing his new ear tubes!

These kids crack me up!

Food Allergy and Fever

If I haven't mentioned it on here before, we've been trying to figure out Bug's random fevers for a while now. He had some last summer and then they seemed to go away after Baxter moved out. He started getting them again this summer, especially when we were in Maine and many evenings after playing outside. After lots of blood work and our pediatrician consulting with our food allergist at Hopkins, the answer is as we suspected and hoped for....yes, some food allergy kids get random fevers, especially in the evening and no, they're not sick. This was great news and we're excited to have an answer.

Eye Boo Boo #1

yes, that means there's an eye boo boo #2.

Bug was fighting back when Roo was antagonizing him and scratched him in the eye. The ped's office was able to get him into the eye doctor and the doc did a good eye exam and said it's just a scratch and that it would be better the next day. It was. The best part of the eye doctor was when the doctor showed Roo all the different pictures and then made them smaller and smaller. One picture was a hand, Roo called it a cow. The doc said, let's call it a hand. When we were leaving, the doc said, great job Roo, lets clap our cows....gotta love a doc with a sense of humor.

Bug woke up from his nap yesterday and his right eye is really red in the white portion of his eyeball near his nose. It looks like it's spreading a bit but it doesn't seem to be bothering him. I talked to the pharmacist and the nurses line today and will either take him to a local ped where we are or if we can't get in we'll go to the "doc in a box." Either way, we'd be happier with it being looked at. Our top two guesses of what may have happened are that he's allergic to Miss Sassy the cat at Grammie's or possibly the Maine state bird, aka the black fly. Hopefully it's allergy and not any sort of infection. I'm trying not to think that this is karma for him scratching Roo.

Who Doesn't Eat Lobstah?!?

Bug doesn't eat lobstah! When I went grocery shopping last weekend I got Bug his very own lobster. We wanted to trial it at home to make sure he's not allergic to it. Well, we figured out that either way, he just won't taste it. So, we're still not really sure how he would react to eating it, but he cringes at the sight of it. Can't wait to have lobstah!

Bug Ate Baked Banana

Bug ate baked banana and loved it!!! That's right not only did he love it, he didn't have any sort of immediate allergic reaction to it. I'm beyond excited! He's been asking for bananas at the grocery store and Dr. Wood had advised us to trial it at home baked into a bread. I made an amazing vegan banana bread and have included the link to the recipe http://www.theppk.com/2007/10/banana-bread/ . Maybe we'll let him try a bite of raw banana this weekend...we'll see.

Bug's Food Allergy Outlook=Positive

This week we went to see Dr. Wood at Hopkins. He is Bug's food allergist and he is awesome. We have done a good job avoiding all of the foods that Bug is allergic to and hopefully one day it'll pay off. We had the blood work done for this appointment in December and saw the results a a week after the blood was drawn. We looked at them and compared them to last year and thought they looked good. But, we didn't want to get our hopes up because we're not doctors.

When we got to Hopkins, we were first seen by the doctor who is on fellowship with Dr. Wood. She was really nice and asked us enough questions that we didn't forget to ask or bring up anything. She was pleased that Bug's eczema is under control and she made us feel good that we knew what we were talking about since we did a bit of our own research to figure out some of Bug's fruit allergies.

So anyway, after she met with us, she went to speak with Dr. Wood so the two of them could come up with a plan. That's what we like so much about going to Hopkins, is that we leave with a plan and we're not at all directing his care like with our local allergist.

So Dr. Wood came in and was very pleased to see that Bug's numbers went in the right direction. Watching the numbers from the RAST results between ages 1 and 3 can tell you a lot about whether or not the food allergies are going to be getting better or worse. Bug's egg number dropped an entire class, his milk dropped 1 point, peanut went down a bit and so did some of the other ones. The ones that went up were typically less than a point. When we first met with Dr. Wood last year he told us that we could expect either huge increase at age 2 or for some to decline, that it's sort of a benchmark year to tell what direction the allergies are going. This is based on a lot of research and statistics, and though I'm not usually a huge fan of statistics, if this is our best hope, then we're all for it.

Dr. Wood was visibly happy when he was speaking with us and let us know that it is likely that Bug will outgrow ALL of his food allergies by Kindergarten! Amazing news!

We had let the fellowship doctor know about Bug's terrible eating habits and Dr. Wood explained that they will most likely remain terrible and to continue with the soy supplement and feed him any fattening food he likes, like bacon and sausage, daily even. He was actually surprised to hear that Bug is off the bottle. He explained that food allergy kids can be terrible eaters and that sometimes they even fear eating.

If Bug's numbers stay down next year, he said we can fully expect to test out peanut. Scary right!

Until next year, we are allowed to have coconut again; Dr. Wood doesn't expect any reaction at all. And we're allowed to try out banana. I'm to bake it first, in a banana bread or cookie, and then if he does ok, give it to Bug in small pieces increasing over time. It would be great to get banana back as it is one of Roo's favorite foods and we know he misses having them in the house.

And finally, Bug had a little growth spurt and is still short but got taller and remaining steady on his 10th percentile height curve and went up a bit from his 10th percentile weight curve to 25th! Now he's the size of an average 1.5 year old, lol!

All, in all, it was a great day and worth the drive to and from Hopkins. We'll be back there in November to see his 3 year old numbers!

How Many Doctors Appointments in 1 Week?

Last week we played a game called "how many doctors appointments can we go to in 1 week." Bug had his well baby scheduled for one morning and before the appointment I took him for a foot xray since he limps on it on occasion and complains that it hurts. Since we've gotten him a new pair of shoes this has happened a lot less but we figured we might as well take him just to make sure we don't miss anything. That ultimately broke our "no more than one appointment per day" for Bug rule, so by the time we got to his well baby he was done. The major topic of discussion at his well baby was his eating habits and how he gets his nutrition. He's a pretty small little guy and still uses a soy supplement, that he gets through his bottle for a significant portion of his nutrition. The ped suggested we see an eating specialist to see if they can help us get him off the bottle and on a more normal toddler diet.

Later in the week Bug had an appointment with the allergist to get his flu shot testing and flu shot. Since we hadn't done any SPT in a year, we did a pretty full panel of foods and cat/dog on Bug's back. We waited for that and the 1st flu shot test to be done and as we were waiting I could tell that some of his food allergies were still really bad, if not worse, at least according to the skin testing results. The good news was that his flu shot test came back negative but since his egg allergy was out of this world, we still needed to do the interdermal tests, fun! So we waited for those and Bug didn't like that at all, especially since he could see it all on his arm. Those came back negative as well and he was given the full dose of the flu shot all at once and we had to wait a half hour before we could go. The good news for the food allergies was that there weren't really any new ones, the bad news was that none of them really went away and we still continue to get negative results on some foods on his skin but positive on his blood work, so we'll learn more when he has his RAST testing done and sees Dr. Wood this winter. Here's to hoping we get even just 1 food back!

And even later this week, I took bug to the ENT because he had drainage over the weekend and was still complaining that his ear really hurt. And since neither the ped or the allergist could see if the tube was still in and said his ear still looked infected even with the ear drops, off to the ENT we went. And the result was great, the tube was still there and the infection was clearing up nicely.

While we were at the ENT, Daddy went to the doctor because he wasn't feeling well. Turns out he has a sinus infection and got medicine for that and should be much less grumpy.

And then to seal the deal on Doctor Week, we took Roo to the ped on Saturday because his cough didn't sound good. And though we thought we could be wasting our time going since he didn't sound that bad by Saturday, she said that his throat looked like there was major drainage and decided to give him a round of antibiotics.

Guess Bug and I will get sick this week!

Allergy Update

Last week we traveled to Johns Hopkins to see Dr. Wood. The drive up went smoothly and the only trouble we had was actually following the GPS to the right street to find the parking garage. The children's clinic is in a pretty bad area so we were careful to find the correct garage. Once we got to the building and found our way to the entrance we found the area to check in. As I was checking in the lady asked me what Bug's food allergies are. I listed a few and said I heard that Dr. Wood was supposedly the best. And she laughed, and said not supposedly, he is the best.

The waiting room had a little play area and there were other little kids there with a variety of conditions. Bug had fun playing with some of the toys and watching some of the bigger kids play. When they first called him back they took his height and weight. And as you guessed, he cried. As we were walking out of the area to wait to get called back to see the doctor, Bug said all done to the nurse and then told her "I love you," through his tears. She was just smitten and gave him a big hug and then smiled at him any time she was calling other kids back.

Once we got called back to meet with the doctor we gave his entire medical history to one of his assistants. You should have seen the look on her face when we told her about the local emergency care center not having epi-pens. Anyway, we gave her his history and I had a copy of all of his allergy testing and she photocopied it and gave it all to Dr. Wood.

When Dr. Wood came in he took his time to meet with us and answer all our questions. He explained how the allergies trend at Bug's age and our plan of action going forward. We are going to have RAST blood work done again in 8 months and hopefully his milk and egg numbers will go down enough to trial them in a baked format. He said that this is the age where we'll learn a lot about if his allergies are going to trend towards better or worse. We are of course hoping for better!

We asked some questions about latex as Bug's avocado, banana, kiwi, passion fruit allergies could all be related to latex. The good new is that we can keep the latex paci's he uses. He said if he ever has surgery to make sure we are latex free, which is what we had done for his ear tube surgery.

We also asked about Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS) which could have been another explanation for the fruit allergies and he said definitely not. So that was also good to know.

He told us we don't have to get rid of wheat. Our local allergist had suggested getting rid of wheat to help with Bug's weight gain but didn't provide a warm fuzzy as to the reason why. We hadn't gotten rid of it because we definitely wanted a second opinion. It was great to hear that we can keep it.

He also told us not to worry about rice, which we were sort of thinking but hadn't fully added rice back to his diet. Not that it's worth anything nutritionally, but still, we certainly don't have to avoid it.

And he told us that we should try coconut. He's had it in baked products but not as yogurt or milk or that sort of thing. We still need to try it; we totally chickened out this weekend!

As for helping him grow, our pediatrician gave us permission to try a nutritional supplement called Bright Beginnings Soy Vanilla Supplement. We picked up that day and gave it to Bug over the weekend and he loves it! Dr. Wood said if we give him 2 a day that we don't need to give him a vitamin. He also said to focus on adding more protein to his diet and to aim for 25 grams a day. The good news is that the supplement gets us half way there, which is great as Bug is not a great eater.

It was a huge relief to finally have this appointment (it took 6 months to get in including 1 cancellation because Bug was sick) and to get really good answers and a clear way forward. Best of all, we have hope. And maybe hope isn't a good thing with food allergies but we at least have hope that there's some method that will help us determine when we can try out foods on our bad list.

Oh, and second best of all is that Dr. Wood said we are doing everything right! What a huge compliment!

So for now, our list of allergies is: dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seed, banana, avocado, kiwi, passion fruit

Allergy Food

So I've been thinking recently how confusing and overwhelming it all was when Bug was first diagnosed with multiple food allergies. Now, over a year later, we've adjusted to the changes and have a totally Bug friendly house (you know what I mean!). I was thinking it might be helpful to put together the recipes we regularly use and where we buy all of our items and give it to the allergist and ped as a handout for newly diagnosed patients. I remember how we took an entire day off of work to drive to Richmond to see what we could find at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Turns out our Wegman's has just about everything we need. We are currently learning how to add more fat and calories to what we eat since Bug's weight is not where it should ideally be. He's dropped to 10th percentile and though he doesn't look like he's underweight, both the allergist and the ped want to start having weight checks...so we're concerned and are trying to tackle this head on!

I also want to show how the allergy food we have doesn't really taste any different and isn't weird. At Cousin Andrea's graduation party, the family had made just about everything Bug friendly. And you know what, nobody tasted the difference. It's amazing the products that are out there and now that we know where to find where everything is, it's just become normal for us.

So here are some pictures of some of the yummy food we've learned how to cook; most of these are desserts because main dishes are fairly easy when you're cooking from scratch (and I didn't take pictures..) And I have to say, if I didn't cook well before his allergies, I'm certainly learning to become both a good cook and a good baker! I am good at a weeks worth of main dishes now, amazing! Even Daddy is amazed at how tasty some of our dishes come out.

So what do you think, should I start writing a cook book? Even if it never gets published, I think it would be really cool to have. I'd love any ideas my wonderful readers have!

Wow, April Just Flew By!

Looks like I haven't updated since mid-April, and it's hard to believe that it's May already. The second half of April included lots of outdoor work and along the way the adoption of Pillar the caterpillar.

We debated how much outdoor work we were going to do this year because we just re-did our bathroom and the kids bathroom; which look awesome now!

We decided that since we'd put off doing the bottom half of the back yard for so long that this was finally the year that we were going to re-grade it. We got our normal amount of mulch for the bed and around the trees, 10 yards I think and then we ordered 20 yards of dirt. As we were finishing mulching the front yard we realized that there was no way we'd be able to do the grading without a tractor with a scoop on the front. So we rented one of those for a day. And wa la, Daddy finished grading the back in just one day.

The remainder of the day after I got home with the kids, we seeded and then put lots of hay over the seeds.

We discovered that Roo is allergic to hay touching his skin. I had to take him to the doctor on Monday to make sure the rash was from the hay and not his tick bites from the week before. He had a couple of bites that looked worrisome so we got antibiotic for that and prednisone for the rashes on his arms and feet. His rashes are pretty much gone now and the one bite is a lot less red. The area with the bite and the rash was about the size of a baseball on his forearm and was bright red, it looked bad.

That will probably conclude our yard work for the season. I'm planting pots of veggies and herbs because we didn't have the materials to make my garden and decided we don't want to spend any more money on the yard. Roo has been an awesome helper and we planted pumpkins on the side of the house and it turns out that the herbs I planted last year are still growing, so I pruned those a bit and we planted some tomato seeds as well.

Somewhere along the way Roo found Pillar the caterpillar. He made him his friend. He fed him and gave him water and a home. Pillar has since been released back into the wild to be with his family.

Now we just need some rain to get everything to grow!

Allergies Suck!

Tonight Love Bug had his first acute allergic reaction. As we were getting dinner ready, I noticed a sippy on the counter and joked with Daddy that he had just made the sippy but forgot to give it to Bug. Daddy said that it was the one that come home with the boys from Kristin. So I gave it to Bug. He took a few drinks and a minute or so late we put him in his chair for dinner. But he was acting really weird. And his voice was really hoarse. And then his bottom lip started swelling. As soon as he was acting different and I heard his voice I figured he was having an allergic reaction, but from what? So we kept an eye on him and tried to figure out what he ate and then realized the only thing we didn't have control over was the sippy. So we opened it up and tasted it and it was that evil cows milk stuff.

We then ran around the house like idiot chickens with our heads cut off. I mean seriously, we both know that if we are even considering calling 911 that we need to use the epi pen. I mean duh, we KNOW that. But we had never seen him react to anything before other than throwing up from egg and we dairy reactions are not typically anaphylactic.

So I got the number to the allergist and called and as soon as Bug's lip started swelling Daddy took him to the emergency clinic down the road, less than 3 minutes away. And then the nurses line called back and said we should have given him the epi. So I call Daddy and tell him to speed and to make sure he runs in the door and that he gets seen immediately.

And then I talked to the nurse more and she calmed me down a little and took all of Bug's information and gave me some advice on what to do in the future.

Daddy called to let me know that Bug was being seen and was doing ok. And then when I talked to him later he told me that Bug was lucky enough to see the quack doctor, that he had been given prednisone and to call the nurses line because he wasn't happy with quack doctor. Quack doctor is in the same group as old pediatrician.

So I spoke with the nurses line and asked what we should do the rest of the night and after she got in touch with the allergist she called back with guidance. Double his normal dose of Zyrtec and prednisone at midnight and see the allergist first thing in the morning. She said it's possible to have a secondary reaction which is why we need to give him more medicine during the night. And I'll be sleeping in his room later in the evening once Daddy gets home. I thanked her for all her help the whole night and am grateful the nurses line is competent enough to have let us speak with the same nurse all night.

Bug was going to have some allergy blood work done tomorrow but we'll postpone it...and his allergist appointment will actually be a lot more fun for him anyway, they have a play room!

Daddy went and filled the prescription and Target filled it as he stood there! Target rocks!

I spoke with Kristin and we've figured out how he got the cup of evil milk and have made plans for preventative measures since the boys like to share cups and we've been ok with Roo having whole milk at daycare. All soy all the time for our boys. And I can't wait to find some outrageous sippy's for Bug.

I can't imagine how much worse this would be at a big daycare or even in elementary school. And some of my hopes of this going away in the next few years are gone because we didn't expect this severe of a reaction. Bummer.

But on the bright side, because there always is...as I consider how we learned about his allergies while I was nursing him and today how we learned how severe they can be...I figure better to learn this now while either we or Kristin are watching him and know how to handle it (note idiot chicken comment above) than if he were in a different environment.

So, lesson learned: do what you know, give the epi if you're considering calling 911, then call 911.

We have a ton of questions for Dr. Craig for tomorrow. Should be an exciting appointment!