Colin’s Hives…

I got this shot using the kids camera…

This was a few hours ago and now I have trouble seeing any normal skin on his back and his front is full and it has spread to his legs and face also…

He isn’t complaining at all though…

Another cases of hives…

This time… in Colin…

I am starting to wonder if this was all just a Virus or something…

Khéna had hives… then a few days later got croup…

Colin and Xavier both have a something that is cold-like… so there is some kind of virus here…

hmmmm….

i wonder….

new appointment…

After venting a bit on my favourite message board someone gave me an idea…

Call back the hospital and get onto the cancellation list.

The secretary asked me a few questions and though I had said it all yesterday it seemed to register a bit more today and after realizing that he was pretty much EBF, that it was most likely something that he had just had contact with and not had eaten etc.. she said that she would talk to the doctor to see what he thought and then she would call me back in the afternoon…

so I waited…

She called back and said that the doctor would like us to come in sooner and that they could give us an appointment for Nov 8th… of this year….

So… I feel a bit better… Just a few weeks and we will be able to maybe start knowing what he is and hopefully isn’t allergic to…

My Day…

So this morning the Hives were a bit better but were still there and were on his limbs and face and I decided to go have it checked out… not for the hives of course, because really, there is not much to do for them, but I would like to know what he is allergic to officially.

So I called our family doc in Montreal and I was told that we could have an appointment in 2 weeks… I took it grudgingly and then opened the phone book…

Our city has 4 peds, I have met three of them. I HATE three of them and do not trust them at all…

I called the fourth… In the past he was not been taking new patients… I think the way that I called and asked made all of the difference though. I asked her if I could take an appt with the ped for my son… she said that she had a place at 10am (it was 9:15)… I said that we had never been there before and though she was a bit taken back she just asked a few questions including how many kids I have, why I wanted to go in and how old the babe was… then told me to come in…

She asked me if I knew where it was and I told her that I didn’t so she gave me the directions and then finished my saying “just park on the street and you will see the door next to the Garage and go to the second floor”

I got the kids ready and headed out the door… to my surprise the doctor is practising out of his home… just that helped put me at ease…

The secretary weighed and measured Khéna and then we waited just a few minutes and we were the first in… (well… we were the only ones there)

He asked a few questions and didn’t even flinch when I told him that I had a UC, he didn’t ask about vaxes, he praised that I was nursing, he didn’t see any problems in delaying solids and even suggested that we delay longer until we figure out the allergies…

Surprisingly he was able to do a milk allergy test in the office.

He tested negative to a Milk allergy.

I tried to wrack my brain a bit and then thought… peanut…

The boys eat peanut butter and often don’t wash their hands before touching things after eating… Khéna can also reach onto the table and he might have touched something there…

The Ped thought that it is quite possible and said that we should get an allergy test done at Montreal Children’s… as well he would like us to see an endocrinologist.

So… I get home and I call the Hospital… leave a message at the endo clinic and get in touch with the Allergy clinic… the next available appt. Is for Nov 6^th…. 2008

I can’t believe it… 13 months wait…

I called a private clinic and we could get an appt this week… and they would even come to our home… it would be 300$ though and even our private insurance wouldn’t cover it…

I called the doctor back and talked to the secretary to see what he thinks we should do… they are supposed to call me tomorrow…

I am not too sure what the next step is for now…

Hives…

Last week Khéna had his first bits of solids… a few pieces of puffed rice which he seemed to enjoy playing with more than actualy eating…. He has had a few since then also but probably only a dozen have actually entered his system…

Two days ago we were having supper and I gave him a bit of mashed potatoes to play with and he got a bit in his mouth too.. Not thinking though… I had mashed them with a bit of milk….

The morning after….Yesterday… Khéna started having bumps on his skin… and today full blown hives…

I am 90% sure that it is an allergic reaction to milk… I think in my gut I kind of knew because he would get green mucous stools when I would drink cow milk when he was younger…

Ah… I think I am about to enter more into the world of food allergies…

still sick…

I hate feeling like this… It has been such a long time that I have been sick for so long, usually I have a day or two… maybe three but this has been going on 4 days straight now with no relief in sight… My throat still kills, my nose is stuffy and my head is cloudy…

I just want to crawl into bed and hide….

Last night I coughed so much during the night and hacked up a few things that were a bit scary… (sorry if that was TMI)… At least I could breathe a bit better after but I know that there is tons more….

I was in so much pain that I resorted to taking a few Motrin but even that is not helping…

I need to feel better soon…

ughh….

I am sick…

Last week Colin and Khéna were sick and Khéna is still coughing in a way that makes him throw up a few times a day, especially when he lays down.  I felt bad on Sunday and then felt  better on Monday… enough to go out on Monday to a friends house with the boys…

Then, right on the way back home…. it hit me…

I feel miserable. My throat feels like it is going to swell shut and it is so painful to swallow that I flinch each time. It is Wednesday morning and I have felt like this since Monday night…
It is SO hard to be a mom when you are sick… I can’t really relax and take care of myself and the more that I try the more the boys need my attention.

Of course, being sick can’t be enough…

Now the dryer broke… We are biting the bullet and buying a new one… it should be here on Friday but until then we can’t do much laundry and I am at the end of the cloth diapers…

It has been raining for two days so line drying hasn’t been an option… (I think that we are going to get a sunny break today though)

food colouring…

It has been almost a year since we decided to stop eating foods that have colouring. Our original reason was upon knowing that food colourings can affect behaviour in a negative way, the other reason was that Colin seemed to have a physical reaction to food colouring.

It has been hard to cut everything out but we are getting there and still discovering foods that surprise us… the boys are also getting used to it and know that it is not good for them. The battles are getting easier and are almost non-existent now.  When Xavier shops with me he points out the foods that have colouring and asks me to check if others do.

Though it was a goal before it has forced me to go toward that whole food, non processed diet that I have been wanting and though there are still some things to work on I am feeling happier about our eating habits. There are however, still a few things that enter the house for us adults and yesterday one of those things confirmed one of the reasons that we avoid colouring…

Yesterday I made Sushi and while I was making it Colin was picking pieces of Tempura out of the bowl. I had finished making his so I had added some crumbled some honey snacks in the tempura (the sushi shop near me has sushi with it in and it is so good) and well, they have colouring….

Well, Colin must have gotten a little piece because he got hives all around his mouth and started coughing after…

There was nothing else that could have done it, and about an hour later the hives had gone… but now I am 100% sure that he has a real allergy to food colouring… and though we are really careful, we have to be even more… what he could have gotten was such a tiny piece… I don’t want to know what more could do…

doc appt’s and bummis….

Yesterday we went to a Well baby visit for all three boys…. the boys hadn’t been in a year and a half so I though that I should bring them in as we were going for Khéna anyways…

First I stopped off to see my grandma and got a few pics with her and the boys.. well…. Colin didn’t want to so he’s not in them…

Isn’t she beautiful! She is 83 BTW

We the headed to the doc… I don’t do well baby visits often since I don’t really see the point in them since the schedule is really only for vaccines and of course I am completely against routine vaxes, especially for young children whose immune systems do not stand a chance … but I want to make sure to keep our family doc and keep a good relationship with him since he is a great doc and Quebec has a shortage… the exams were brief as they always are, and he is great with kids… talking to them, playing with them, engaging them in conversation… and he said to come back next year with Xavier and Colin…

Khéna’s appt was pretty brief also… He had nothing to say about him being born at home unassisted, though he would have liked a “at birth” weight. He asked his permission to touch him and talked to him during the exam. Khéna was calm through it all… he asked about vit D and Vax and I told him that we won’t be doing them… he asked why… I told him… he said that he doesn’t agree but that it is my choice and left it at that… he doesn’t give vaxes in his office anyways so really it wasn’t a problem… right before he went to weigh him he mentioned the birth weight again saying that it is useful to know if he is gaining… I kind of smirked and said that I am pretty sure that there was no problem….

We got the scale and he understood what I meant… but… he wasn’t the 16 pounds that we thought (Simon weighed him on the bathroom scale on wednesday)… So yesterday, At 7 weeks 3 days, he weighed in at 17 lbs 4 oz…!!!!!! meaning that he has been gaining more than a pound a week! I couldn’t believe it… but then I can… he is heavy and rolly and oh so squishy!!!

After seeing the doc I went to one of my favourite stores….Bummis!!!

They have bins under the counters with things half price so I had fun picking out some new covers… for cheap!!

Here’s what I found… aren’t they great!!!?

Ow!!! that hurts!

This morning I got the bureau for the boys delivered… an old bureau that I found second hand on Monday… the men that brought it in moved the big rocking chair that I had in the front so that they had a clear passage to the door… they put the bureau in the boys room and then left but did put the rocking chair back… so I went to move it and underestimated the weight and it caught my big toe… it hurt but not too badly…. then within a second it started to hurt more… then I noticed that it had completely ripped off my big toenail and it was hanging by the tiniest peice of skin and there was quite a bit of blood..

So I cleaned it… and then wondered how I was going to bandage it, I have had nail problems in the past but that hurt like crazy!!! I mean… OUCH…. the skin under the nail is SO sensitive and I didnèt have anything on hand to clean it well… so I decided to call the CLSC line… (a nurse).. and the nurse said to go to the CLSC and see a nurse there and they will show me how to bandage it so that nothing sticks and also just to see the toe to see the swelling etc… So I packed up the kids went there and got that done… it actually went really fast and not only is nice and bandaged but she also gave me all of the suplies to do it myself…

anyways… now I am back home and the toe is throbbing and hurts like crazy still…