Been Kinda Busy...and an Allergy Update!

Just when I had the good intentions to start making time to blog more I went a got a job!  Last Wednesday I got a message from the principal of a local elementary school saying she really wanted to interview me for a 1st grade position at their school.  I interviewed Thursday morning and got the call 6 hours later that I got the job!!!!!

I have been at home for the past 4 years so needless to say the past week has been absolutely NUTS between finding the best possible childcare/preschool for Lucy and Ruby and an after school program for Max and Abby (I am not at either one of their schools and even though we could transfer them to my school we decided to let them stay at their schools with their friends). 

Ruby and Lucy were going to be able to start at their school this past Tuesday so that left me with figuring out what to do with Max and Abby.  Thanks and a big SHOUT OUT to my awesome sister Shea and my awesome in-laws Jack and Charlotte for agreeing to keep our two older monkeys up in Charlotte.  I drove them up Monday evening and drove back the same night since I had to go to work in my classroom on Tuesday.  Looooong night ;p

Lucy has taken to her new school wonderfully but Ruby is having a very hard time and has consequently screamed and cried herself hoarse.  She does calm down some during the day but will start crying periodically and doesn't really eat much while she is there.  Thankfully she does take about an hour long nap otherwise she'd be done for!  I know it will take time and her teachers are great so they are letting her do what she needs to do to adjust.  It breaks my heart and I wish we'd had time to get her adjusted more slowly but I had to report officially yesterday and we had Meet the Teacher tonight!

Okay, gotta go clean up the kitchen then head to bed.  I have to drop Ruby and Lucy off at school between 6:30 and 6:45 tomorrow to go to professional development meetings by 8am ;p

*****ALLERGY UPDATE*****

Got a call Tuesday afternoon from Ruby's allergist's office.  She is definitely allergic to peanuts but thankfully it is a mild allergy but we have to keep the epi-pen handy.  She is also definitely allergic to dogs (showed up on the skin test).  The blood work also showed positive for allergy to egg whites...she can have fully cooked eggs in cakes and cookies but no scrambled/fried/etc. eggs or anything where the egg may not be fully cooked.  He wants to do an "egg challenge" in the office in about 6 months to see how she does.  Also, what I had feared with all of my kids actually came true...Ruby is allergic to CATS!

We have 2 cats so I was sad when I was talking to the nurse about it.  She said that they have never told anyone they had to get rid of their pets.  She suggested just keeping Tai and Chi out of Ruby's room for now and see how she does.  The cats are 15 and 14 years old so it would be heartbreaking to have to find them a new home (if we didn't have a choice then we'd certainly pick Ruby's health over anything else) so I am glad we don't have to resort to that.

Reserved Parking...

You know how when you spend a lot of time at a certain place it can begin to feel like a home away from home?  Well, for the past couple of weeks that has been our pediatrician's office ;p  Last week I had Ruby there twice due to her high fever and sore throat, which got worse after I took her in on Monday so I took her back on Wednesday.  She thankfully started feeling SO MUCH BETTER Wednesday evening...just in time for John and the kids to get back from Charlotte :)  So much for all the projects I had hoped to complete while they were gone!

Then Sunday night Max started complaining of ear pain and drainage.  Abby had a case of swimmer's ear so we used some of her drops on him.  This was NOT fun and from past experience (using the drops after his numerous ear tube surgeries) I expected I'd have a fight on my hands trying to get them in his ear...Max met my expectations and beyond!  I got him into the pediatrician's office on Tuesday because his ENT didn't have an appointment available until next Thursday.  He was diagnosed with a "bad case" of swimmer's ear.  The Dr. prescribed drops which would require 4 drops TWICE A DAY.  I was tempted to ask if I could just drive Max downtown twice a day for the next 7 days to let the Dr. do it.  I didn't want him to think I was a coward though so I didn't ask ;p

The funny thing was, when I called to make the appointment for Max, the receptionist took his name then she got quite for a second and said, "You are here ALL THE TIME!"  She mentioned the two appointments the week before and then the appointment I made for Max.  I said, "Yeah, and I'll be back Monday for Abby's 6 year check-up".  She laughed and told me I might as well bring a pillow and just stay...I did ask if I could get a reserved parking space right out front though :)

The drops have been a nightmare and he has been on round the clock Motrin for the pain and swelling in his ear.  I had to call the after hours nurse Tuesday night because Max just couldn't sleep at all through the pain and the Motrin was wearing off about an hour before I could give him another dose.  He also started running a fever.  The wonderful nurse (they are the nicest ladies when a frantic parent calls in the middle of the night...I've never felt like I was bothering them at 3 in the morning when they would have to call me back) said it would probably take 2-3 days before he really started feeling better. 

I was driving Max around last night from 1-1:30am because he woke up in a lot of pain (and he tends to yell and scream through his pain) and he wasn't due for another dose of Motrin until 1:30.  He was able to get back to sleep right afterwards though and only fussed a couple more times before sleeping until 7:30 this morning :)  Ironically, my child that had the worst case of swimmer's ear is the same child that won't even put his head underwater at the pool ;)

Of course in the meantime Lucy had woken up and I found her in our bed with john when Max and I got back from our "road trip".  I went to sleep on the living room couch and caught some Z's for about 30 minutes before she woke up yelling and crying for me...yes...daddy was RIGHT THERE NEXT TO HER!...so when I got my tired body up the stairs I found that she had wet the bed ;p  It was one of "those" nights!  Good thing for me I had a job interview at 9 this morning!

FRUSTRATED!!!!!

I am so frustrated.  John took Max, Abby, and Lucy up to my mom and dad's house this morning on his way to work so I could take Ruby to her 8:30 app't at the allergist.  After about 10 minutes of frantically searching for my keys (Max had put them in his duffel bag when he unloaded the car for me Wednesday night) I got Ruby up and we headed out the door.


Once we got in the exam room the nurse came in and I mentioned we were there to go over the results of the blood work.  She left and came back a few minutes later and said Bad News.  The lab that we went to had cancelled the order because they told her (just this morning) that there was something wrong with the sample.  Don't you think someone at the lab would have thought to pick up the phone and call the Dr. who ordered the labs or me (they had my number) to let us know this?????  NOPE!


The nurse had to call the lab this morning when she didn't see the results in the chart.  She was trying to get a hold of someone at the main lab to find out what happened to the sample and no one called her back while we were there.  So, I had to take my baby girl BACK to the lab and have her go through the stick all over again.  Obviously, since the "sample was bad" we were going to have to do it anyway.  I am not upset that we had to do it again because things happen, mistakes are made...I get that.  What I AM upset about though is that the lab dropped the ball and didn't pick up the phone to let us know so I went through all the motions and had to sit in the Dr.'s office for nothing.


The nurse said this time she will call us when the results come back rather than us having to go down there again.  This was the 3rd Dr. app't that Ruby had this week between 2 visits to the pediatrician for her fever and sore throat and then the allergist.  If she sees another stethoscope anytime soon she might lose it ;p


So for now we don't have any more answers...sigh... I just want to know what we need to know so we can move on to whatever we have to do for her.  Patience Staci, patience.

Back to the Allergist

I know it's been awhile since I've been here...no excuses except I've just been trying to keep my head above water during this crazy summer. 

I am taking Ruby back to the allergist tomorrow to get the results of the bloodwork...I'll post the details tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Sis!

Just want to wish my little sis a Happy 36th Birthday!  Wow Shea...before you know it you'll be as old as me :)  Hope you have a wonderful birthday today and I am sorry we can't be there to help you celebrate :(

Just One of THOSE Days...

You'd think it was a Monday the way this day is going so far...


So, I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not but over the past couple of months Ruby has had two instant reactions to peanuts/peanut butter.  I had been purposely keeping her from anything with peanuts due to her eczema and knowing that food allergies sometimes go hand in hand with eczema.  I just didn't want to chance it.  Her reactions weren't bad but she broke out in hives both times and both times Benadryl did the trick.  She also had an episode where a strange dog licked her on the face and within minutes she had hives/red welts covering her face and her eye was beginning to swell shut.  Benadryl did the trick then too (I had also called the pediatrician's office so I knew what else to look for in case the Benadryl wasn't going to work).


My "Mommy's Intuition" has been working overtime lately and although the pediatrician recommended waiting until she was 2 to do any allergy testing I figured I'd just do it anyway...normally I don't mind surprises but being surprised by another food reaction is not something I want to deal with again.


I took Ruby to a great pediatric allergist this morning.  Dr. B is the ONLY name that I kept hearing while talking to various parents about it.  The skin testing was performed and she came back positive for peanuts AND dogs!  Eggs are also a possibility because she HAS had a reaction to eating scrambled eggs in the past.  She can eat things with eggs in them (i.e. cake) and doesn't break out in hives but the Dr. pointed out that if her eczema were to flair up within 24 hours then that could also indicate a food allergy.  We have been working overtime the past week or so in getting her eczema under control because she had some bad areas so I don't know if it was related to something she ate or not.


We have to go in for blood work tomorrow and we'll go back to the Dr. on the 29th to get the results and get more education on peanut allergies.  The Dr. also said that since she has eczema AND food allergies that her chance of developing asthma at some point is about 50%.  I'm trying very hard right now to process all this.  For the time being the Dr. feels it would be best to have an epi-pen handy so I have the prescription for that I have to get filled.  He also suggested using Zyrtec instead of Benadryl only because it lasts longer.  He said it would be a good idea to give her a dose about 30 minutes before we go to visit someone with a dog (i.e. my parents and both of my sisters!) We are also avoiding eggs whenever possible (cake or waffles would be okay).  The Dr. said we would do an egg challenge down the road to see if she outgrows her reaction to that.


So, THAT was my morning.  My incredibly TOTALLY awesome mom kept Max, Abby, and Lucy at work with her this morning because I had heard it might get rough during the testing.  So after I picked them up and we stopped off to say hi to daddy at work we came home to a HOT HOUSE! 


Our downstairs a/c unit is apparently on strike!  While the heat index outside is sitting at about 100 our downstairs is currently a toasty 83 ;p  I tried what I knew to do and now I am waiting on the a/c guy to come.  I called at 2:20 and the lady said he could be here between 1 and 5...then she laughed and said, "Well, he obviously won't be there at 1"...glad she had a sense of humor...she's probably sitting in a nice air conditioned office :)


On top of that my husband is doing battle with the company that "fixed" our foundation last summer.  We noticed the cracks in our garage wall were getting bigger so we put in a call.  The guy "E" who originally came out and "sold" the product came out and took pictures and said the crew would call to come out and fix it.  Call never came and so after I had called for 2 months the crew came out and apparently one of the piers was installed in the wrong place and they would have to call "E" and he would call me to tell me what would have to be done.  2 weeks went by without a call from "E" (are you noticing a pattern here?) John finally got ticked off enough to step in and raise some cane :) 


After several phone calls from John and more from an employee at the company calling on "E"'s behalf, "E" finally showed up on our doorstep yesterday.  He said the crew had put the pier in the wrong place, not where he told them to put it.  I guess he forgot he had given me a copy of his drawing which indicated where the piers were to be placed...they put it exactly where he marked it to go...the WRONG spot!  "E" told me the crew was in the area at another site and that he would have them come over as soon as they were done and take care of it.  Huh...they didn't show up.  Either he "forgot" to tell them or he has no right to alter their schedule...no one called or anything.  I would have thought after all of this that "E" would have called me (as good customer service) to make sure the crew had shown up...nope.


John has had enough and when we stopped by his office today to say hi he was on the phone with the president of the company (who had no idea any of this was going on) and demanded some answers.  We had no problems getting them out here last summer when they were getting $1600.00 out of us...now that they have to correct a mistake THEY made we are getting the run around.


Okay, sorry...had to vent and get that out.  WOW, okay, I was going to take some pics to go with this post and my camera battery died...I'm just gonna crawl in my bed and pull the covers over my head!  I'll do a picture post soon!

Our 4th and a Face Update...

We had a busy but great holiday weekend!  The kids had their final swim lesson on Friday afternoon and although all 3 of them need to stay at the same level next go round they all have come so far!  Before this Lucy never would have even walked to the deep end of the pool much less JUMP IN!  Max never would have jumped in either but he did too.  Abby is more of a daredevil and even jumped in off the platform.  She is the one who is more serious about taking more lessons and becoming a swimmer.


I wish I had some pictures of the lessons but I had Ruby to watch while we were there so I couldn't take my eyes off her long enough to get a picture.  She would have been the one to walk right into the pool!


Max was supposed to have a tournament this weekend for the travel baseball team but it got cancelled because they didn't have enough teams to participate.  His coaches cancelled practice for the weekend too...it was a much needed break from baseball ;p


Saturday morning was spent cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.  since my kitchen was as spotless as it was going to get John went and picked up Chick-fil-a for lunch :)  John's parents arrived at about 1:00 for a visit.  They took us to Outback for dinner Saturday night and it was SO YUMMY!  Even better than the food was the fact that all 4 kids behaved SO WELL!  Max has long since stopped ordering off the kids menu so he had some bread, a big chunk of bloomin' onion, a house salad with thousand island dressing, a 1/2 order of baby back ribs, french fries, and a few pieces of my steak.  He ate every bite and there wasn't a bit of meat left on the rib bones.  What are we going to do when that kid becomes a teenager?  YIKES!


Sunday morning we just hung out around the house and after John's parents left he headed to the pool with Abby and Lucy.  We had planned for all of us to go but Max was having some pretty serious behavior issues (talking back, pitching fits, lack of respect for his sister's stuff) so after telling him he wouldn't be able to go to the pool if he kept up the attitude, he kept it up so he stayed home with me and Ruby.  He wasn't happy about it and it was hard on the rest of us but the boy has got to learn that his actions have consequences and if we don't follow through then he'll just get worse.