and the doctor says....

He is more allergic to peanuts than we all originally thought. His blood test indicates that 95% of the time he comes into contact he will exhibit a severe reaction. Moo's skin and wheezing indicated that he is constantly reacting. So....

1. Start a daily allergy medication to minimize reactions from peanut particles in the air.
2. Teach Moo to be his own advocate, ie: reading PEANUT on labels, not eating foods from others.
3. Research school allergy policies and educate caregivers.
4. Epipen, Epipen, Epipen. Give it, call 911, give another after 10 minutes if needed.

It was a pretty frustrating visit. There isn't really any treatment we can do to lessen severity at this time and the allergist expects Moo's overall food allergies to get worse rather than better.

the peanut saga continues

We are back from a week long romp to the land o' corn. 1792 miles of driving over 7 days with 2 tots in tow. They did great, definitely better than we would have ever dared wish for. We all really enjoyed the trip and seeing all of Hubs family. I have oodles of photos to share and random land o' corn observations. But alas, you have to read about peanuts first.

Disclaimer: I really, really like peanuts. So does Hubs. All of our dates revolve around the pesky little legume now. We eat Chinese and Thai food with peanut sauce chased down with reese's cups and butterfinger shakes. Although after the last 7 days, I may swear them off all together.

I HATE what PEANUTS do to my baby boy. And peanut dust. And peanut oil. And any product containing any atom of peanut particles.

My in-laws, God bless each one of them, went way beyond what we could have ever asked them to do in regards to keeping Moo safe. Grandpa and Grandma did everything short of ripping out the carpet and dismantling their HVAC system to get peanuts out of where Moo would be. My sister in laws scoured labels and threatened to beat up a man eating peanuts at the zoo. My nieces and nephews suffered through an egg hunt without their favorite candies. One niece even fasted in protest of her suffering. If she couldn't have pb&J she just wasn't eating.

But, it didn't stop Moo from reacting. Every night from about 7pm on we were battling to keep him from wheezing and from such intense coughing he was throwing up mucous. His entire chest was just rock hard as every muscle he had was being used to get him to breathe.

I hate it.

He is sensitive enough that if we even walk in a store or restaurant that serves peanuts he starts coughing instantly signaling it's time for us to leave. He will be so excited to go somewhere and he breathes in the air with peanut dust in it and you can tell he starts to feel bad instantly. At this point, I don't think it's reasonable to think we will be able to send him to school in 2 years.

I hate it.

I hate that Hubs and I have to be so hyper aware as parents when we really want to give our kids space to be kids. Ack. I AM the helicopter mom. I am so frustrated. I want to be able to send my kid to preschool without feeling like I am sending him into war unarmed.

We go tomorrow to get him reevaluated and hopefully some better options for treatment. Poor kid is so tired he won't even wake up for treatments or when he throws up. He put himself down for a nap today, now that's exhausted.

That was cathartic. Thanks.

life is like a day in the park

Life is like a day in the park, full up ups and downs. Happiness and sorrow. Potty accidents and terrifying swings that turn on you. Oh? That's not what happens when you go to park?

Well it's normal for us. We walked to the park, about a mile each way. We were literally 20 yards from the park when moo peed on himself. Nice. Even nicer, "bad mommy" only had spare clothes for sis. So yep, he ran around the playground wearing wet underwear and 18 month size pants (err, bicycle shorts) in BRIGHT pink. Good job Mom!

We then went to go get ice cream across the street. Closed. The little cafe next door? Closed. The fair trade coffee shop, not a great idea with kids. The nasty grocery store across the street? Check! Bad Mommy also didn't pack snacks. So after grabbing a box of graham crackers we headed home. The store had peanuts out in ventilated bags and that was enough to trigger a rash on Moo and send him over the edge. He didn't touch them, didn't come within 10 feet of them. Agh. Even the simple is complicated with his allergy. He requested a nap as soon as we got home. Poor kid.

officially a wimpy white boy

1. This is a great book dad.
2. Really interesting. Check out that starfish.
3. Hey, why is that lady messing with my back.
4. %$#@#! MOM! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

60 plus pricks and 3 vials of blood later.....

He is allergic!

Moo is officially allergic to peanuts, which we have suspected since his first birthday. An extra special bonus is finding out that he is also allergic to eggs. And milk. And shellfish. Woohoo! Feeding him is going to be FUN! Actually, we give him milk and dairy every day and eggs several times a week with no adverse reactions so we can continue doing that. Thankfully (or not), his "asthma" seems to be a systemic allergic reaction to peanuts or peanut dust. Unfortunately for him, we live in the middle of a giant peanut filed here in West Texas.

This is just the pricks on his little back, both his arms had them in 3 rows up and down the length of his arms. The ones on his back were all "neagative" and his left arm looked like one giant hive by the time we left since thats where the peanut was. They actually had to give him zyrtec and benadryl before we left because he had broken out in hives from the peanuts.

I guess he will be playing in a plastic bubble with our little nieghbor M and his good friend L and they can have a grand time eating peanut-lactose-shellfish-egg free snacks.

wimpy white boy

It's not croup! Hooray!

Moo has the symptoms of Asthma, but it has to be a reoccurring problem to be defined as Asthma. We also suspect he has a garden variety of allergies and hope to get him non-wheezy enough to actually be screened for allergies. I traumatized him yesterday when I accidentally gave him "good and grainy" bread that had nuts in it. I happened to read the label a few seconds after I gave it to him and immediately pinned him to the ground and yanked it out of his mouth. For some reason, he didn't enjoy that.

Good times.

mini darth vader

I have my own personal mini darth vader, except instead of saying "Luke, I am your father." He says thing "Can I have sum froo loo's, peas.". Little man has come down with a nasty case of croup and is a wheezing, snotty, feverish, hacking little mess. We got to party all night long last night listening to him wheeze lightly between bouts of screaming trying to hold off on the drugs to get him to his allergists appointment at 9.

After enduring 16 plus hours of mild wheezing he kicked it up a notch around 7:30 this morning and ran him into our local awesome fancy clinic. By the time we got back in a room his oxygen level was down to 90% and his heart rate was 160 bpm. Not good. So 3 hours in the er, 3 chest x-rays, a blood draw, and 2 breathing teatments he was back to just mild wheezing.

We will be doing 6 or more breathing treatments a day until he licks this. Thankfully, he was easily distracted by Thomas videos and promises of m and m's if he left the nebulizer in his mouth for the full 30 minutes. The cute little fish mask was a HECK no.