[sigh]

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed...

Yesterday, I took my son for his check-up with the allergy doctor. Three years ago we began suspecting that Patrick had some serious allergies and we were worried that one of them was peanuts after a couple of reactions and hives. He had to go through allergy testing which was hard on him, but I think even harder on me. (See the scrapbook page above.)



Well, we found out that he is allergic to many inhalent/environmental things like dust, mold, pollen, grasses, animals, etc. In addition to this, he showed tendencies to being allergic to several foods. Strangely, though, peanuts came up negative, although he showed sensitivity to soybeans (another legume) and almonds. The doc told me it would be wise to just avoid nuts altogether to be safe. He also gave me an overwhelming list of things to do and clean around the house and put Patrick on medication to help control the allergies.



Unfortunately, all of this only seems to be helping a little and now Patrick is complaining of stomach aches daily as well as occasional bad headaches. I look at him with his dark circles under his eyes and get so sad. I worry that the tummy aches are due to a food allergy, but am stumped as to what it is. His diet is varied and his stomach aches come after eating lots of different types of food. The only thing I have truly seen is there was one really bad episode after he drank two glasses of chocolate milk at Applebees. The doctor feels that he could be having the tummy aches from either food, or from nasal drainage going into the tummy or a combo of both. So, he asked if I could remove all dairy from Patrick's diet for the next couple of weeks to see if it makes a difference. He also wants to give him another set of allergy tests. He was only 3 years old when he was tested before and got the infant test which isn't as extensive. And he is twice as old and things may have changed for better or worse in different areas. I think the doc wants to consider shots as a possible option and he would need a more current complete picture of what we are dealing with. BUT that means TWO separate visits for testing. Two times he has to have a back and arm full of holes and discomfort. Thankfully, he doesn't really remember when we did it before, but I do. :-(

So, I am feeling overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with the testing, overwhelmed and feeling like I should be cleaning and scrubbing my house more, overwhelmed with figuring out how to cook without dairy. When I said "Sure, we can take him off of milk." I wasn't thinking about all that involved: all cheese, butter, yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, ice cream, mac and cheese. Tonight I am making my famous Hot Dog Pie for a family that just had twins so naturally that is what we will be having for dinner, too. But Patrick can't have it because it is full of cheese. I told him I would make him some special pigs in a blanket instead.

Sorry, I am rambling on and on. I guess I just needed to vent. I am off to fix lunch for the kiddos. We have gotten a bunch of beautiful, white, fluffy snow and I plan to take the kids out in it after lunch.