So the cold front came through last night and now it's cold. Our high today was only 61. And right now at 9:30 it's already 49! It really sucks because we usually swim on Tuesday's. I did call my friend and joke that we were coming swimming today. She was like "uh, ok, it's a little cold. If you would have called earlier we could have turned the water heater on." I laughed and told her I was just kidding, even if the pool had been preheated I still wouldn't have swam today! It was chilly, windy and very overcast. This cold snap is gonna last for another week or so the weather bug says. So I guess we won't be swimming on Friday either. If it's a nice day we'll still go visit with our friends and the kids can just play a game of putt putt golf in their backyard!
As you can tell, I do not like the cold but my kids are loving it. I actually turned the AC off today for the first time in many months. Brenden, my oldest, kept complaining that it was hot. He was actually outside playing in shorts and a short sleeve shirt like it was nothing. Chase also liked it because he didn't sweat so bad and it didn't aggravate his eczema. Instead, it started to aggravate his asthma, just great. Logan thought it was neat too. He was excited to be able to wear his Pablo (Backyardigans) jacket finally!
I'm sure another warm front will come back through since that's the way it works here in Louisiana but at least it won't be deathly hot on Halloween like usual. They make all these Halloween costumes for the Northern states! They are so darn thick that I always have to search for a costume that is thin so my kids won't melt! Of course, this year I found Chase a thin one and what do ya know, it's actually going to be pretty chilly! Figures!
It is supposed to rain all day today so I guess I should clean or something? Honestly, this house has not had a good cleaning since I can't remember when! Maybe February, before Logan's Birthday party! Well, probably May around the time the kids got out of school. This Summer was just too darn hot and busy and with the kids home all the time all they do is mess up what I clean up and I end up working a million times harder. But now with homeschooling it's just as bad because they are here 24/7 so again it's the same thing! AHHHH!
Okay, I am going to clean and will finish this later.
Alrighty! So it did rain all day and I did clean. Of course they messed it right back up again! It's not so much Bren & Chase, it's wild man Logan. I had all of his toys that he likes to play with neatly placed on the coffee table. But he found a way to mess them all up and knock most of them on the floor! I am tired of picking up toys off of the floor so I left them there. I did get one thing accomplished...I cleaned out Logan's toy box in the den. Since summer everything has just kind of accumulated in this one corner of the den and had become a mound! So I went through everything and either put it in it's place or threw it away. It does look much better over there now. It was time to do it anyway because with Christmas on it's way (and we all know it will be here sooner than we think!) I needed to get that cleared out to make way for the tree and decorations and presents, all the fun stuff!
Now that the rain is ending I feel the cold front coming through and I don't think I like it. I guess I really do like Summer better. Well, not the 106 temps we had there for a while but 90 really isn't that bad. The weather we were having right before this wasn't bad either, mid 80's, nice to be out in and wasn't too hot for Chase. And we could still go swimming. I miss swimming =(
This 3 minute song sums it up! What mom's say sung to the William Tell Overature...
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1202370
Check out this fellow blogger for her Halloween T-shirt contest. Contest ends tonight, so hurry!
http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/2007/09/28/halloween-t-shirt-giveaway/#comment-6526
Also, check out her store for some super cute T's and onesie's...the link is on her blog. The name is Cute as a Bug.
Well, after Chase throwing fits and saying he hates me for the past 2 weeks it turns out the allergy shots weren't so bad afterall! When we got there this morning they called back his favorite nurse. She promised that she would get her allergy shots first so he could see that they did not hurt. So she got hers and he watched cautiously. Then it was his turn...he sat on my lap and was fussing a little bit but not screaming thank goodness. I warned them about the alcohol wipe this time, so we tried it on one arm and he said it hurt really bad so on the second arm they used iodine instead and that was much better. So he got the first shot in the back of the right arm and didn't even really feel it because the alcohol was still burning! And then the left arm he did much better with the iodine. We were so proud of him for doing so good. I'm thinking next week he'll probably be a pro already.
After that we had to sit for 20 minutes with a timer to make sure there was no immediate reaction. We had his epi-pen ready to go just in case! But he did really good. As a matter of fact he didn't even have any swelling at the injections site.
So, so far so good. I just really hope these shots help!
Gosh! Time just won't slow down for me to catch up! So let's see...I was gonna write about Chase, Brenden's 12th b-day and our Labor Day beach trip.
So I will start with Chase. As most of you know Chase has battled with eczema, asthma and severe allergy since he was pretty much born. We've been to almost every kind of doctor including a naturopath/homeopathic doc. Including one out of state. They've all said the same thing...he has eczema and he'll grow out of it. (Still waiting for that day!) And then they push the prescription meds that I'm sure they get kickbacks on...antibiotics, oral steroids, steroid creams, antihistamines, cancer causing creams like protopic and elidel and so on. All of these seemed to make him worse, not better unfortunately.
So these past 2 yrs. he has been med free except for an occasional asthma treatment of Xopenex. Besides his eczema, asthma and allergy he's very healthy. The only thing he's ever had is the fly-by 24 hour tummy virus and mycoplasma pnuemonia (walking pnuemonia). They say it is not bacterial or viral but fungal. He has gotten that each year since he was 2 except last year. But it got him again this year in August which is usaully when he gets it. When he was little they used to put him in the hospital for 3 days. That always sucked. But now that he's older it doesn't get him as bad and we are able to treat him at home. They put him on Zithromax, Oripred (oral steroid) and a codeine cough med. I knew he needed the antibiotic, but the oral steroid I should have not given because while it does work very well and clears up his eczema it also causes him to rebound when he finishes the course. So when he's done he gets worse again before he gets better. And the codeine cough med I was hesitant to give because codeine is pretty strong and it had phenergan in it as well and I didn't want to zonk him out.
Okay so we went for allergy testing on Sept. 14. He'd been before when he was about 9 months. They did the prick test on his back and nothing showed up which I thought was very strange. At that time they did not do the RAST since he was so young. Then again about 2 years ago we went for bloodwork but the stupid lady could not find a vein and was literally jamming it in and around while Chase was screaming bloody murder. I finally had to tell her to stop and just forget it so we walked out with nothing but a screaming child in pain who is now deathly afraid of having blood taken. So this time we are seeing an ENT. We'd never been to that one before. And honestly I never would have if it had not been for us meeting a lady at Walmart who was an ENT nurse. She saw Chase and asked me about him and then told me that she would really like to help him. We exchanged phone numbers and the next week she called me with an appt. set up and everything. So we went to the ENT and she was shocked to see how bad off he was. She said they had a little boy with bad eczema before and allergy shots helped him and she's hoping they can help Chase too. So then she sends us for the blood work. Well, we explained to the lady in the office how scared Chase was and that it is very hard to get a vein. I told her that if she didn't feel comfortable to please just let me know and to send us to the hospital's lab where they are used to taking blood all day long. So she did take a look and decided that we should go to the hospital. So we get there and there is like 25 people in the waiting room! It was lunch time, I had all 3 kids with me and Chase was already crying just thinking about getting blood taken! It was so sweet, while waiting an older lady noticed Chase crying and asked him what was wrong. He told her he was scared to get blood taken. She told him not to worry that he would be fine. She left for a second and then came back up to him and handed him a $5 bill and told him to go pick out a treat at the toy store when he was done. That was just SO sweet =) So after waiting about 45 minutes with 3 hungry kids they took us back. We go into the room and it's a very young pregnant girl! Not that I have a problem with that, if it was me no problem...but I needed someone with lots of experience that could get the vein with one poke as fast as possible! So after looking for a while she decided to go get another tech, I was so happy. An older black woman came in and I can tell right then she's the one. But while holding Chase who was still crying I forgot to tell them one important thing...no alcohol wipe! EEK! I had my head turned looking at Logan who was trying to run around like a maniac and didn't realize she was about to wipe him. See, being he scratches so much the eczema is open like a sore and we all know how alcohol feels on a bo bo! So he screams and I'm like they didn't even poke you! Then I see the wipe and let them know what they just did! They said they were very sorry, they weren't even thinking! So then the lady sticks him and it's not so bad afterall. She got it perfect on the first poke, thank goodness! They used a butterfly, so it was small and had a small tube that ran to where they change the tube to make it easier. It went quickly and we were outta there.
A week later we got the results back. I also had them run a CBC (Complete Blood Count, just in case someone's not sure what that means) with a differential. I'm gonna post the results here just in case someone knows what I'm talking about or if a doctor or nurse read this and thinks they can help!!
CBC- the # and the H & L stand for High & Low
WBC- 16.1 H
RBC- 4.31
Hgb- 12.9 L
Hct- 38.8
MCV- 90
MCHC- 33.2
RDW- 12.3
Plts- 681 H
MPV 5.5 L
Manual Differential-
Segs- 35 L
Bands- 1
Lymphs- 25 L
Monos- 11 H
Eos- 27 H
Basos- 1
Platelet Evaluation- Normal
RBC Morph- Normal
IgE- Immunoglobulin E Level-
> 26000.0 Ref. Range [0.0-90.0]
(as you can see here this number is almost unbelievable! More about this at the end)
He tested very high for every inhalant, most at >100 (i.e grass, trees)
Cow's milk- 95.60
Beef- 14.00
Chicken- 9.88
Egg (yolk & white)- 25.70
Wheat- >100
Rice- >100
Soy- >100
Anything above 17.50 is considered Very High.
So as you can see he tested very high for everything! His doctor was astonished! As was everyone else in the office! So now she wants him to start allergy shots. Which we are supposed to start this Friday. I'm still a little unsure though. I am wondering if it will even work, if he will get worse or even have a bad allergic reaction? Which is why I have to go pick up his Epi pen prescription tomorrow. They say he will do 2 shots per week for 20 or more weeks! Then after that he will do maintenance shots for another few years. That's a lot of shots and a lot of money and a lot of going back and forth to the hospital which is not really that close and a real bitch to get to! I guess we are going to go Friday and I just hope all goes well. I will keep everyone posted.
And one more thing! I know this is very long already but there is more. After getting his results back and seeing how allergic he is and how high his IgE levels are I did some research on the net. I came across an extremely rare disease called Hyper IgE Syndrome or Job's Syndrome. He presents with many of the symptoms. They think they have identified the cause but there is no cure or treatment at this time. It was very interesting so I printed out some info for his doc. She was very open to reading it which is a good thing because we all know that most docs these days think they know it all and usually just blow me off! So she read it and did admit that she had never heard of it (most docs haven't) and thought I might be on to something. So now we have been referred to a Genetic Counselor. I need to make that appt. as soon as I find out what insurance covers because as you can imagine all these doctor trips, blood workups and such are gonna kill me financially, LOL!
Okay, I think that's it. I will post about how the allergy shots went this weekend.
Wish us luck!
Kristi
