on allergies and childen (or my child, anyway)

oh, my son.  i don't think i have ever gone into details about ian's allergies.  we have known since ian was about 3 months old that he has eczema- which is something we are still dealing with.  when he was about 7 months old- i had my first suspicions that ian may have an allergy to milk- a suspicion that was confirmed when he was maybe 18 months old (we found out then he's also allergic to eggs).  since that time we have seen an allergist once or twice a year and have been the proud owners of countless prescription and over-the-counter skin creams that are applied from head to toe.  we carry an epi-pen.  i consider myself an "expert" on eczema...


so, let me share a little bit about allergies, etc.  i can best sum this up by telling you exactly what our allergist told us- think about a triangle- on the three corners are eczema, allergies and asthma.  they are all related.  if you have 1- you most likely have all 3- they just may not all be showing.  we're definitely lucky when it comes to allergies, but it still stinks. 

so another part of this is that ian catches every little bug under the sun.  his immune system is just more susceptible to these things.  we can't even set foot inside of our gym without him catching something.  so thanks to all the parents out there who bring their sick children to the gym.  eff you.

because of this, ian has some kind of bug since november- NOVEMBER.  that's about 6 months of runny noses, sneezes, and a hacking cough.  we have missed more time at daycare (and we only go once a week) than every other child at daycare combined.  when ian initially got sick he was sick for six straight weeks without relent.  after 6 weeks, we finally broke down and called the pediatrician (something we don't do often b\c of our wonderful insurance) and we were told ian had a slight ear infection.  we were given a prescription of amoxicillian and told about the wonders of zarbees.  this totally knocked things out- for a bit.

so- easter week.  ian had been sick... again... and this time he had been sick for at least 2 weeks.  the last straw was when they called me at work to pick him up from daycare.  i called the pediatrician's office again.  ian had another slight ear infection and was having bronchio-spasms.  we were given another prescription for amoxicillian along with a prescription for albuterol to be given through 
an aero-chamber.

we were told to watch after the first dosage of albuterol for shaky hands b\c it can make you jittery.  well, we didn't have anything like that with ian- so we would give 2 doses as prescribed.  things took a turn on friday...  ian had not napped friday (nor had he napped thursday)- but what set us off was when we got him up friday and gave him his inhaler dosage- not even 5 minutes later he was running circles around our house, yelling, screaming and punching the air.   he would get hysterical when when we would tell him no- or even worse, he would be really sassy with us- and not the normal sassy more of a "you hush your mouth" to us sassy.  yikes.

after consulting facebook (a reputable source) we heard that this was pretty much the "norm" from friends who have children on albuterol, nurse friends and pharmacist friends.  we decided then that we would discontinue the albuterol.  it was still 2 more days until it all seemed to be worked out of ian's system.  ian finally seemed back to normal when we woke up on monday morning- but, oh, the real fun had yet to begin...

we continued our amoxicillian dosage, but kept noticing that his skin seemed dry and a little bumpy- by friday he was covered in hives.  we weren't sure what to do, so we took him to the pharmacy and the pharmacist said it looked like he was developing an allergic reaction and to discontinue immediately. saturday, i called the ped- and they couldn't see him until monday.  we had planned a trip to dave's aunt & uncle's house- and as we were traveling there, his skin continued to get worse.  he had fun playing- but he was constantly itching.

that night was awful- we tried to put ian in our bed- but he refuses- he wanted his own bed.  it was almost impossible for me to sleep b\c i could hear him thrashing around and itching.  i ended up going in the room and sleeping in his bed so i could try to keep him from scratching- it was nearly impossible as he was really angry any time i would try to stop him.  between that and his fever- he was so hot that i was burning up just being next to him... it was miserable.  the next morning i put him in the tub- a lukewarm bath with the bath soak we use... but he was so hot from his fever that he was freezing in the bath.  i ended up taking ian to urgent care b\c he was so miserable. at urgent care, they gave us a dose and prescription of prednisone.  by the end of the day, almost all of his hives had cleared up, and by the end of the 7 day prescription, his skin looked the best it had ever looked. 

so two thursdays ago i took ian back to the dr. for his follow-up to the above appointment.  i shared my concerns about albuterol and how it had made ian act like a crazed maniac.  ian had started coughing again a couple days before we went in- and we were definitely needing the inhaler again, but i had been avoiding it.  the pediatrician was able to help give me a few solutions on giving him the albuterol and keeping him calm- lo and behold, they worked!  i also told the dr. about the hideous reaction to amoxicillian.  we won't be taking that again...  during the exam, we found out ian had ANOTHER ear infection.  now we get another follow-up appointment to this follow-up appointment...  unfortunately, he doesn't have enough diagnosed infections for tubes, so we were prescribed a new antibiotic.  guess what?  not all antibiotics are the same.  amoxicillian is only $4 at my pharmacy (free at meijer.  you're welcome), but our replacement antibiotic- over $60.  the hell?!?!  so, we did our 10 days on the replacement- which ran out saturday and guess what we have now?  raging side effects...  he has been miserable for the last week- so miserable that last night he woke up screaming in pain.  we spent about 30 minutes trying to get him calm- as he was inconsolable.  finally he fell asleep in our bed and we ended up keeping him in there b\c dave fell asleep and i wasn't going to attempt carrying back into his room on my own.  when you're pregnant and you have to share your bed with a 3 yo and your husband- you might as well sleep on the floor.

even if this was happening... at least they got bed space..

giving dave the business...

so, today, ian is still having issues- i finally called the nurse, and they've recommended the b.r.a.t. diet and some probiotics to straighten him out (since he can't have yogurt).

lawd.  i hope this baby girl is healthy as a horse...  i'm about to shun modern medicine...