Drama Mama

So, as many of you have probably heard, Trey has a peanut allergy. I'll briefly fill out in on how we found out, though it still makes me cringe to think about it...
Trey has never really eaten a ton of solid foods, but a lady I met at church said, "You should try peanut butter and jelly! Its the only thing my 14 month old will eat!" Even though I felt a little weird about giving him peanut butter and jelly, later that week, I was eating some peanut butter and just to see if Trey would like it, I gave him a TINY little amount. (It was probably the size of HALF a grain of rice!) Well, about 10 minutes later, I noticed his hand was red and had hives on it, and his face was starting to swell. I tried to stay calm, but was in such a panic. Robby and I rushed to the drugstore and got some Benadryl for him. By then, he looked like Will Smith on the movie Hitch (just without the swollen ears). I called the nurse line at the doctors office since it was after hours, and they said he should be fine unless he was having trouble breathing. He wasn't, praise the Lord. After he calmed down, he threw up everywhere, so that made me nervous again since he had just thrown up his Benadryl...so we gave him more, the swelling went down, and he actually slept fine that night. The next day we flew to Arkansas to see some friends. (What a blessing from the Lord that I didn't give him anymore that I did!)
So, the doctor called while we were there and wanted us to bring him in when we got home for some allergy testing. So that brings us to yesterday...

We get to the doctor and Trey was playing happily in the exam room when he tripped and fell into this old heater or something that was in the room, and cut his poor little nose. (I put a little picture of it up, so you could see). So that started the tears... he recovered rather quickly, but it was only the beginning. Then she wanted to see a spot of excema on his side, and so that made him cry when I took his diaper off, then she checked his heart and lungs and tried to look in his mouth. She literally had to pry his mouth open because he clinched his jaws to tightly. So... that made him cry. He never cries that much. What a rough day!

Then, she proceeds to tell me that she wants to get some blood from him to run an allergy panel just to see some basics. It tests for obvious things like milk, soy, peanuts, and wheat. I had to hold the poor baby down on the table while they took some blood. He had no idea what was going on since he never gets poked with needles, and he was so scared. But I will say, he did rather well, and I actually held it together the entire time!
You would think after that the visit was over, but she ended the visit by informing me that Trey was "very underweight". Obviously, because most children are eating lots and lots of solids by now and probably drinking whole milk (which we wont be giving him) so I can understand why. But, she said he really needs some calories and has quite a bit to gain. I don't know if I buy that completely. He's very healthy and quite chunky, but I will certainly become more serious about making this boy eat!
She did say it was probably because he was so active and just not eating quite as much as most babies, but that since he was been trying more and more solids, the weight should come on quickly.

So, to end the day, I had to spend over $100 on two EpiPens (thanks Dad) to have around at all times in case for some reason he was to ingest the peanuts, and another $60 for some steroid-free excema cream. Whew! I guess we won't be eating this month! :) I'm hoping this allergy panel will answer a lot of our questions. We sure do love our little Treysome!

To end this novel, I will say as leary as I am about going to the doctor, I am thrilled and thanking God that I had a great one yesterday. After finding out that we weren't vaccinating and rarely go to the doctor, Dr. Rule didn't give me a single ounce of grief or try to lecture me at all! She was so kind and really enjoyable. I will definitely request her from now on!