Medical Maladies – Page 11 – a hippie with a minivan

My Day…

So this morning the Hives were a bit better but were still there and were on his limbs and face and I decided to go have it checked out… not for the hives of course, because really, there is not much to do for them, but I would like to know what he is allergic to officially.

So I called our family doc in Montreal and I was told that we could have an appointment in 2 weeks… I took it grudgingly and then opened the phone book…

Our city has 4 peds, I have met three of them. I HATE three of them and do not trust them at all…

I called the fourth… In the past he was not been taking new patients… I think the way that I called and asked made all of the difference though. I asked her if I could take an appt with the ped for my son… she said that she had a place at 10am (it was 9:15)… I said that we had never been there before and though she was a bit taken back she just asked a few questions including how many kids I have, why I wanted to go in and how old the babe was… then told me to come in…

She asked me if I knew where it was and I told her that I didn’t so she gave me the directions and then finished my saying “just park on the street and you will see the door next to the Garage and go to the second floor”

I got the kids ready and headed out the door… to my surprise the doctor is practising out of his home… just that helped put me at ease…

The secretary weighed and measured Khéna and then we waited just a few minutes and we were the first in… (well… we were the only ones there)

He asked a few questions and didn’t even flinch when I told him that I had a UC, he didn’t ask about vaxes, he praised that I was nursing, he didn’t see any problems in delaying solids and even suggested that we delay longer until we figure out the allergies…

Surprisingly he was able to do a milk allergy test in the office.

He tested negative to a Milk allergy.

I tried to wrack my brain a bit and then thought… peanut…

The boys eat peanut butter and often don’t wash their hands before touching things after eating… Khéna can also reach onto the table and he might have touched something there…

The Ped thought that it is quite possible and said that we should get an allergy test done at Montreal Children’s… as well he would like us to see an endocrinologist.

So… I get home and I call the Hospital… leave a message at the endo clinic and get in touch with the Allergy clinic… the next available appt. Is for Nov 6^th…. 2008

I can’t believe it… 13 months wait…

I called a private clinic and we could get an appt this week… and they would even come to our home… it would be 300$ though and even our private insurance wouldn’t cover it…

I called the doctor back and talked to the secretary to see what he thinks we should do… they are supposed to call me tomorrow…

I am not too sure what the next step is for now…

Hives…

Last week Khéna had his first bits of solids… a few pieces of puffed rice which he seemed to enjoy playing with more than actualy eating…. He has had a few since then also but probably only a dozen have actually entered his system…

Two days ago we were having supper and I gave him a bit of mashed potatoes to play with and he got a bit in his mouth too.. Not thinking though… I had mashed them with a bit of milk….

The morning after….Yesterday… Khéna started having bumps on his skin… and today full blown hives…

I am 90% sure that it is an allergic reaction to milk… I think in my gut I kind of knew because he would get green mucous stools when I would drink cow milk when he was younger…

Ah… I think I am about to enter more into the world of food allergies…

still sick…

I hate feeling like this… It has been such a long time that I have been sick for so long, usually I have a day or two… maybe three but this has been going on 4 days straight now with no relief in sight… My throat still kills, my nose is stuffy and my head is cloudy…

I just want to crawl into bed and hide….

Last night I coughed so much during the night and hacked up a few things that were a bit scary… (sorry if that was TMI)… At least I could breathe a bit better after but I know that there is tons more….

I was in so much pain that I resorted to taking a few Motrin but even that is not helping…

I need to feel better soon…

ughh….

I am sick…

Last week Colin and Khéna were sick and Khéna is still coughing in a way that makes him throw up a few times a day, especially when he lays down. I felt bad on Sunday and then felt better on Monday… enough to go out on Monday to a friends house with the boys…

Then, right on the way back home…. it hit me…

I feel miserable. My throat feels like it is going to swell shut and it is so painful to swallow that I flinch each time. It is Wednesday morning and I have felt like this since Monday night…
It is SO hard to be a mom when you are sick… I can’t really relax and take care of myself and the more that I try the more the boys need my attention.

Of course, being sick can’t be enough…

Now the dryer broke… We are biting the bullet and buying a new one… it should be here on Friday but until then we can’t do much laundry and I am at the end of the cloth diapers…

It has been raining for two days so line drying hasn’t been an option… (I think that we are going to get a sunny break today though)

food colouring…

It has been almost a year since we decided to stop eating foods that have colouring. Our original reason was upon knowing that food colourings can affect behaviour in a negative way, the other reason was that Colin seemed to have a physical reaction to food colouring.

It has been hard to cut everything out but we are getting there and still discovering foods that surprise us… the boys are also getting used to it and know that it is not good for them. The battles are getting easier and are almost non-existent now. When Xavier shops with me he points out the foods that have colouring and asks me to check if others do.

Though it was a goal before it has forced me to go toward that whole food, non processed diet that I have been wanting and though there are still some things to work on I am feeling happier about our eating habits. There are however, still a few things that enter the house for us adults and yesterday one of those things confirmed one of the reasons that we avoid colouring…

Yesterday I made Sushi and while I was making it Colin was picking pieces of Tempura out of the bowl. I had finished making his so I had added some crumbled some honey snacks in the tempura (the sushi shop near me has sushi with it in and it is so good) and well, they have colouring….

Well, Colin must have gotten a little piece because he got hives all around his mouth and started coughing after…

There was nothing else that could have done it, and about an hour later the hives had gone… but now I am 100% sure that he has a real allergy to food colouring… and though we are really careful, we have to be even more… what he could have gotten was such a tiny piece… I don’t want to know what more could do…