Nora Jane's Milk Allergy

Just as a follow up to my previous post. Nora Jane's blood work came back with no trace of a milk allergy. So last Thursday I took her back to the allergist to do a milk challenge in the office. She had no reaction to the milk. I had to wait till Friday morning to give her anymore, but since then she has been great. She must have grown out of it!!

Baby's first Bob!

Nora Jane's cute new haircut!!

I had some time while Tucker was at preschool, so I took Nora Jane over to get her haircut. I am loving it!!

Hospital Week

Disclaimer: Feel free to read this, just know I'm writing it mostly for my own records.

On Monday September 14th, Tucker had a really bad cough, all day. About 10:00pm that night he woke up to go to the bathroom, and was having a really hard time breathing. After talking to our friend who's a PA, and our friend who's a Doctor, we decided we needed to take him up to Primary Children's Hospital. They gave him double dose of albuterol, which took an hour, and some steroids, and then wanted to watch him for an hour after. His breathing started to tighten up again, so they decided he needed to stay over night in the RTU (rapid treatment unit) for observation. We got to the RTU about 3:00, and Daniel left to go home and sleep, and I stayed with Tucker...who slept from 4:00 until 6:00am when they came to do another treatment, then I had to climb in bed with him and help him and we both fell back asleep until 8:00am. The next morning, when the doctor came in for rounds at 10:00, we figured we'd just be released, because Tucker had done really well over night. He had just been given a treatment with the nebulizer, and the doctor decided she'd like him to have one treatment with the inhaler that they would be sending us home with, so we could see how to do it. So we had to wait until 2:00 to do that. I think by the time we got released and made it back home it was 4:00 in the afternoon. Oh, they also found that he had an ear infection, which my kids never complain about, so we just treated it, and hopefully he's okay now.

I was able to get him an appt with his pediatrician Thursday morning. After talking with his pediatrician, we've determined its RAD (reactive airway disease). There have been a couple of times (maybe 4) this summer that we had him outside at night playing, and when I would put him to bed he was wheezing really bad, and I remember thinking he was probably getting a bad cold. But he would wake up in the morning and be fine. Now that we're putting all the pieces together, we're thinking he may have allergies to some grasses or pollens, and so I'm taking him in next week to have the prick test done. We're just trying to determine what his triggers are, besides colds, that cause his asthma attacks. That way we can do the inhaler before it gets too bad.

Thursday evening, Daniel was just leaving for his basketball game, when Nora Jane began to wheeze just like Tucker had on Monday night, although we didn't let it get as bad. I was able to take her to our pediatrician's office, to see the on-call doctor at 7:00pm. They gave her a dose of albuterol, and she was okay for about 5-10 minutes, and then started to wheeze again. They gave her steroid shots and another dose of albuterol. We left and went home, and I ran to the pharmacy to get her perscriptions. We got all set up with a nebulizer and albuterol, but couldn't give her another treatment until 11:00pm. By the time I got back from the pharmacy around 9:00pm, she began wheezing again. I called the on call doctor and he said to take her up to Primarys. We left Tucker at my in-laws, and went home to pack up a few things and head to the hospital. We got up there and the waiting room was filled with people, and in the hour we were there, they had 2 life-flights and 3 ambulances. They checked Nora Jane's vitals and her oxygen level was fine. However she was soooo mad. She had hated the treatments at the doctor's earlier that evening, and she seemed to know where she was once we got to the hospital. She spent the whole hour crying, hitting, screaming, kicking. It was pretty miserable. Plus I just felt bad for all the other really sick patients that were being disturbed by her. I finally got her to calm down while playing with the ATM (which she locked up and shut down...oops!) While she was calm I finally realized she was no longer wheezing. After checking with the nurse and learning that it would be a long time before we would be called back, we decided to just take her home. Plus it was 11:30pm and we could have given her another treatment at home at this point. Daniel took her out to the car while I waited to sign her out with the head nurse. By the time he put her in the carseat she fell asleep.

Both the kids and I are over our colds and doing great finally! I'll still be taking Tucker in to the allergist later this week or next. But for now, everthing seems to be fine.

Tucker's first day of Preschool

Tucker has been so excited about starting preschool. We signed him up in July, and he has asked ever since then, "When is it August, because then it will be September?" and "Is it September yet?" I guess its helped him learn some of his months. I was able to drive him to his first day, but then Daniel and I left to go to St. George for the weekend, and so Grandma Pace picked him up. I was able to talk to him about it, but he didn't have much to say other than he played on the rocket ship on the playground. I must admit I've been just as excited for him to go to Preschool!

So proud of you Tucker Man...You're growing up so much!!!

Tucker's riding a two-wheeler!

Nora Jane's Allergies

When Nora Jane was 6 months old, I tried giving her formula, and this happened.
I tried Nora Jane on Milk after she turned 1, and she broke out in hives again. So she's just been on Soy Milk. My Pediatrician reffered me to an allergist, just to get things checked out. Today was her appointment. I explained to Dr. Walker, that two of my brothers are allergic to milk, and that I had talked with them about what worked and what didn't for them. I then told her that the one brother was also allergic to Tree Nuts. So she decided we should test for all of those as well. Plus we have a dog, and she figured we might as well test for that too. I felt so bad that I mentioned the Tree Nut Allergy, when they came in with 15 prick tests to do on her. Needless to say, all of the tests were negative...including the milk, which they pricked a second time, just to be sure (so now that's 16 prick tests). (The red lines on her back, are just from me scratching her back around the tests for her.)

So now we have to take her to Primary Children's for blood work, and if that comes back negative, then I have to take her back to Dr. Walker and have her drink milk while in the office to see her reaction. Apparently there is a chance she has grown out of it!