D is for. . . darn allergies

Alright, it's a stretch, but the allergies are on my mind today.

When Amanda was a few months shy of her first birthday, something had come up and we decided to have her tested for allergies. At that time, we found that she was allergic to wheat and dairy. Now, if you haven't looked at the ingredients on your foods lately, go ahead and check them out. . . it's interesting to see just how many of our everyday foods contain wheat, dairy, or both.

Then, just two days before her first birthday, she had a VERY strong reaction to angel food cake and we soon found that she was also allergic to egg whites as well as peanuts.

She has since outgrown her wheat allergy (thank you God!!), but the others have remained. Every year, within days of her birthday, we have her retested.

When she was tested after turning two, we found that her allergy levels had gone up. . . to the extent of us being prescribed an epi-pen for her. When she turned three, we found that her levels had again increased, and this time, it was a considerable amount.

We've been very cautious (we think) about what she eats. Everyone that we spend time with is aware of her allergies, just in case anything happens when we're not looking. We've talked with Amanda about her allergies and she's very aware of what she can have and not have. . . we even quiz her periodically to be sure. It's pretty sad to shop at the grocery store with her. . . I'll put things in the cart and SOOO many times she asks if there's anything in it that she can't have, and most of the time I have to tell her that, yes, there is something in it that she can't have.

She takes it all in stride, though. She's a real trooper when it comes to it all. She knows that anytime that we go out to dinner or to somebody's house, we typically will bring something with us that we know she can eat. If we go to a birthday party, she knows that she can't eat the birthday cake that everyone else is eating. . . typically I'll bring one of her "special" cupcakes that I make for her, or I'll bring some other special treat for her to have at that time.

That pretty much brings us up to today. We have noticed that Amanda has been feeling kinda yucky lately (aside from the cold that she had), so we decided to take her in for more allergy tests. This was the first time that we had taken her in for the scratch/skin test, and let me tell you, it was definitely traumatic for both Amanda and myself. It's so difficult to watch doctors, nurses, and lab techs poke on your baby and know that you've put her through this and not be able to do anything to stop it from hurting her physically or emotionally. I just have to stand by and wait for them to be done so that I can hug her.

Well, they poked my baby today. . . and much to our dismay, we found new allergies. We are now allergic to cats and dogs (and of course, we have both at our house). We've been given medications to help alleviate the symptoms, so that should help. The doctor told us that her levels are as high as any adult would have and that we can expect her allergies to get worse as she gets older. Yippee, huh?

Here's what my poor girl's back looked like after we got home. Except for the scribbles, it doesn't look too bad. . . we made time to stop and pick up some soy ice cream for her after the doctor appointment - that also made her feel better after we got home.