Health Stuff

I am sooooo behind on blogging, so I'll be combining some events to try and catch up on everything I want to share.

A couple weeks ago, Marino got his first bad cut. While playing with Daddy, he tripped and hit his face on the side of a wooden stool. Evan called me downstairs and I was shocked to see blood all over Marino and all over he and Evan's shirts. After 15 minutes or so, the cut still opened every time we touched it, so I took him to the ER.

This is us waiting in the ER and hoping Ironman is using his powers to heal Marino's cut...

After waiting three hours, the PA came in and told us since the only "open" area of the cut was in the middle, stitches weren't needed. She said normally they would glue a laceration like his, but it was too close to his eye for that. So, we were told to keep it clean (ha!) and bandaged with antibiotic ointment.

Here's how he looked when we got home.

It ended up bruising a couple days later, but seems to be healing well.

We see a pulminologist quarterly to review Marino's asthma and allergies (as they relate to his breathing). They administer a test to see how well he is breathing and he LOVES this test! He breathes into a tube connected to a computer...the goal is to blow all the leaves off the tree to reveal the monkeys hiding in the branches. He is always so excited to go to this doctor to do this "game."

Who's the genius who thought this up?

We've seen a lot of improvement with his using Nasonex (nasal spray) in addition to his other allergy and asthma meds. The doctor said Marino is probably in the top 10 of his most allergic patients, so keeping the allergies under control is paramount to controlling his asthma. But all in all, he's doing well with our current treatment.

New Allergies/Worries

Last week, I took Marino to the allergist to go over his updated labs for food allergies. We had agreed to avoid shellfish and nuts until he was 3 and then do a blood test before giving him those foods, since they are such common allergens (I have a shellfish allergy myself).

Honestly, I was less concerned about nuts than I was about shellfish.

Unfortunately, we found some new allergies.

The most surprising was a moderate allergy (RAST score of .8) to sesame. Marino has been exposed to sesame on a regular basis - he eats hummus several times a week. In doing some research on it, I found that sesame allergy symptoms can be insidious, sometimes manifesting as unexplained eczema or asthma flare ups. Obviously, I am now removing that from his diet and keeping tabs on hidden sesame oil other foods (like the Vietnamese food we love).

The other new allergy is a severe allergy to peanuts (RAST score of 6). While I feel like peanuts are the most well know of allergens, it still gives me another food to worry about. The allergist felt confident he would likely need an epi-pen shot if exposed to peanuts, so we will have to keep a close eye out for them.

Perhaps the most disappointing was that his RAST score for eggs jumped from a 44 to an 84. Now, keep in mind that his allergy to sesame with a RAST score of .8 is a moderate allergy. A RAST score of 84 is astronomical...the measurements stop at 100. The allergist tried to reassure me by saying the testing just captures a moment in time, and his score could be somewhat more or less if we tested another week. But he also said that with a score that high (and increasing rather than decreasing), if he outgrows the egg allergy it won't be in the near future.

This visit coincided with Marino's starting a new preschool next week...one without nurses and with 3 times the number of kids in his class than where we were before. I am definitely concerned.

I Hate Eczema (and allergies)

Marino started having a bad skin reaction to pollen a few weeks ago. I am *almost* ashamed to complain about it, since I realize we are so fortunate he is not having a respiratory reaction. But this skin problem...it's brutal. His skin is already so sensitive because of the atopic dermatitis, and he is incapable of not scratching right now. We started him on Zyrtec a few weeks ago and that seemed to help but Monday it flared up terribly (maybe something new bloomed?). I bought Eucerin Calming Creme *, but that only helps for a few minutes. I started giving him Atarax to help with the itching, but he's still woken up at 4 or 5am every day this week complaining of "itching."

I took him to the doctor today to try and get a better handle on this. She recommended adding 1/2 a cup of bleach to one of his baths a week to prevent infection (bleach kills the bacteria...a pool would have the same effect), using the Aveeno Oatmeal Bath packets, alternating his medicines (Zyrtec in the morning, Atarax in the evening), and keeping him in long sleeves and pants (I highly recommend American Apparel leggings and karate pants and long sleeve tees for this purpose - they are amazing quality and lightweight). While we were talking, Marino scratched open his knee and started bleeding, so, experiencing first hand his discomfort, she recommended using an oral steroid for a few days to try and get ahead of the inflammation.

If anyone is curious, here's what we use to treat Marino's (severe) eczema daily:
Evening Primrose Oil (1.25ml liquid in his morning bottle) - homeopathic remedy for skin inflammation
EpiCeram twice a day (non-steroidal)
Prescription hydrocortisone for a flare-up, no more than 4 days a month
Fragrance free bath products and lotion: Aquaphor*, Aveeno (fragrance-free) and Cetaphil
Fragrance-free wipes: Pampers Sensitive

and here's what we're doing for this flare-up/allergic reaction:
Zyrtec - 4ml once a day
Atarax - 4ml once a day
Eucerin Calming Creme for temporary relief of itching*
once or twice a week bleach bath
oatmeal baths when possible
keeping his arms and legs covered

* added bonus - these lotions are covered under Flexible Spending Accounts, if you have a healthcare FSA

Allergy Testing Results

On Wednesday, we had Marino's allergy testing done. If you're unfamiliar with the process, they have a serum for each allergen, which they scratch into the skin next to where they have marked the skin with a number correlating to the allergen. They check the results in 15 minutes. I had Marino tested for the most common allergens (milk, wheat, eggs, soy, dust, mold and dog) and some other things I was moderately concerned about. They don't generally do the full panel of testing on babies, since it's difficult to find room on their skin (they use the back, so the baby can't scratch it and there's only so much room on a baby's back!). Marino was great - he didn't even flinch during the test. And the results were.....he's only allergic to eggs (we already knew that, of course). I was relieved. The doctor told us we should also get a blood test, but after discussing with our pediatrician, we're not going to do that. We know he gets sick if he eats eggs and we know that the histamine appeared during the allergy test - there's no clear reason why we need to subject him to a blood draw when we know we can't feed him eggs right now anyway.
We will likely have him retested at age 4 and also tested for nuts, shellfish (which I am deathly allergic to) and pollen at that time.

Wednesday night, Marino and I met my friend Megan for dinner. Megan and I met when we took a social planning class together and she discovered I didn't know what decoupage was. She took me under her wing to teach me about the world of crafting:) Megan makes really cool jewelry and she made a beautiful necklace for my birthday (thanks, Megan!). If you're in the market for affordable, handmade jewelry, check out her etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5191888.

Marino loves "big" kids and they seem to love him, too. At dinner, these two adorable random children arrived and entertained Marino. They were so sweet! The little girl (she was 5) kept using Marino's bib to wipe the drool from his mouth (she is an experienced big sister). She kept telling me "he keeps looking at me like this" and imitating Marino's "cheese" face. It was very cute and Marino was eating up the attention.

When we got home, we had a special visitor waiting for us on the door frame. Isn't he cool? How often is a praying mantis waiting for you at home?

Friends, Marino has a true addiction. Seriously, he needs an intervention. His drug of choice? Peach flavored Puffs! He could eat about 800 of these in a sitting if I let him. Evan tried them and he concurred they are delicious.

This last picture of him makes me very sad. I know, I am totally neurotic, but doesn't he look very toddler-ish in this picture? His favorite teacher, Sherry, told me today she thought his face was looking very different in the past week and I really see it in this picture ::sob::

1st Allergy

Marino is allergic to eggs. Today was the third time he had them and within half an hour, he broke out in hives. The hives went away and then he began wretching and vomitting all over me, himself, the carpet, etc. I ended up having to put him in the tub until he stopped. After he was done vomitting, he seemed very lethargic. Of course, Evan and I were freaking out! We left a message for our pediatrician, who is amazing and returned our call within 5 minutes (today is Sunday, too). She said he didn't need to go to the ER unless he seemed to have trouble breathing, and that we should give him Pedialyte and a dose of Benadryl. She also said no eggs or butter at all (even in baked goods) for 2 months and after that we'll do full allergy testing.

The pediatrician said a lot of times an allergic doesn't occur until the child has had a few exposures to the allergen, since it can take time for the antibodies to build up to attack.

Those of you who know me well probably are not surprised my son has a food allergy. I have celiac disease (gluten/wheat allergy), I'm lactose intolerant, allergic to shellfish and eggs bother my stomach (although I don't think that the eggs are a true allergy for me). I was also allergic to citrus when I was a child. The allergy testing will be good and take a lot of the guess work out of feeding him.

He is now resting peacefully on my lap (he also LOVED the Pedialyte).