Allergies are no fun, they never will be. When Lilah was only 6 months old she started to develop all these horrible rashes. She would be playing on the floor one minute and the next minute she would look like she had a case of the measles . Time and time again we would be sitting in emergency room going over the procedures to eliminate different allergen, but like clock work we would be in the ER by Friday.I became so over protective. Working part time as a receptionist, a full time student I did not have very much free time but with these allergies I had zero free time. I was vacuuming the carpet twice a day. I was preparing all homemade food to help monitor what she was consuming. Gerber puts a ton of ingredients in their food so it is almost impossible to know what is causing her break outs.I was so beyond stressed begging every doctor to do a blood IeG test to test for allergens. I felt like the doctors did not take me serious that they did not believe me she could be perfectly fine sitting in her walker and two minutes she would have a rash across her face. Lilah never was allowed to lay in the grass ( too many species of grass to eliminate) Going to the park was entering a world of unknowns. I was scared of everything. I never was able to pick pieces of food off my meal and give it to her. The idea of anaphylactic shock would raise though my mind every place we went out to dinner.
At home I felt like she was a prisoner, she was in one of those large circular baby proof pens, with two thick blankets protecting her from carpet, dander, hair, and dust. Those blankets were washed in boiling water with allergen detergent. I stopped wearing perfume. switched to unscented body wash. Anything I could do to help Lilah not have to live on benadryl. I felt like she was always drugged as an infant. She had two special medications one was a type of experimental allergy medication that helped her allergen receptors not freak out as much and another that was a type of benadryl to help the histamines not swell as fast. It took months for them to finally give us medication and dose charts so we did not have to sit in the ER every week.The day the doctor prescribed medicine was at her 9 month check up. She was sitting on the table fine and healthy and with in the time it took for the doctor to write down on his clip board and look up... POOF Lilah was head to toe in a rash.... He was baffled by this. Shocked he said " WOW you were not kidding" well duh I wasn't kidding who would lie about something like this. He insisted we keep a journal of every exposure date and time when she breaks into a rash.
The next month we were living in Denver because Derrick had his internship.Still having rashes occasionally, she began to start living a normal life on this medication. With me home with her all day it was easier to monitor what was causing the rash. I soon realized she had an allergy to food containing mangoes. Poof no more mangoes in our house. One day when she was about 10 months she reached over and grabbed my scrambled eggs. She loved them but it broke my heart that she was head to toe in a rash sitting in the tub waiting for the rash to calm down. Well poof no more baby food or adult food because every company uses eggs. They all use eggs as a preservative. I couldn't believe that it was the egg yellow or white in all the baby foods causing her rashes.... It's baby food why would it have eggs? We began to limit all foods that contained eggs. I made cakes with apple sauce doing everything I could to protect her.
One day when she was taking a nap I made myself lunch just a simple peanut and jelly sandwich. I ate it fast since I heard her tossing and turning in her crib. I was went in and tucker her in and gently put my hand on her face and told her I loved her..... 3 seconds later her face was swollen she was in the worst rash I had ever seen. Head to toe swollen. I raised threw the apartment got the benadryl gave her a dose sat in a tub with her waiting for it to go down.... nervous waiting with predialed phone to call 911. It became a waiting came she had no problems breathing thank goodness the swelling started to go down and I didn't have to call 911. Allergies are such a waiting game it is horrible! You have to sit and watch every breath to make sure she is not struggling to breathe. It is traumatizing to both the child and the parent. Playing this game of using a epi pen or if the benadryl will work. With in 30 minutes her breathing was still normal, the rash began to tapper off.....She was allergic to PEANUTS!
GREAT..... Peanuts, mangoes, egg white, egg yellow... and what ever else. At her age and weight she was barely 20lbs they told us she needed to reach 25 pounds to have her own epi pen.... WHAT!?! The panic set in that I could not take her anywhere no ice cream shops nothing. because the risk of her going through anaphylactic shock was so high. She had a massive reaction to the touch... This made traveling, going out to eat, and playing at the park almost impossible. When we returned to Washington the doctor finally ran a blood test she had a positive reaction to over 15 types of dust, pollen and dirt. The idea of taking her to play at a park made me sick. I became so scared to visit family and friends. Searching their home like a psychopath looking for any nuts or candy with nuts. (Holidays are a nightmare for us) We hate leaving our home in the winter because the choice of treats contain nuts and peanuts.
No comments:
Post a Comment