Speaking of allergies...

KayTar had an allergist appointment yesterday! We had previously seen an allergist (who we loved, but left us when her husband's fellowship ended and he found work in another state) that was not affiliated with our local Children's Hospital, so when we came to the point of deciding KayTar would need a peanut challenge, she had to refer us to the hospital's allergy department because they only allow peanut challenges on their patients.

Her initial appointment was this summer, but we ended up having to cancel it. The thing about allergist visits is that your child has to be off of all antihistamines for 7 days prior to the appointment. KayTar got sick this summer and we absolutely had to give her Benadryl, she was coughing and puking and having some minor difficulties with breathing. We held off for as long as we could, but in the end, we had to give it. It ended up being a non-issue because she landed in the hospital the day of her appointment with an episode and we would have had to cancel in any case.

We discontinued antihistamines last Thursday and when we found ourselves at a birthday party over the weekend in a germ laden bouncy house kingdom full of snotty and coughing kids, we experienced an ominous sense of foreboding. What were we thinking?!

You can probably fill in the rest. Wednesday night she was miserably congested and we were up all night. LITERALLY. As in, I went to bed at 1am and she woke up for the first time at 1:15am. From 1:15am-3am, we stayed in my bed, but she was fussing/coughing/gagging so frequently that sleep was not happening. At 3am, I caved and we came to the living room (kicking Josh off of the sofa and back to bed) so she could sit upright in her baby papasan seat. From 3am-5am I dozed off a couple of times, never for more than 30 minutes, before she would cry out again. At 5am, she fell asleep and so did I. My alarm went off at 6am. Awesome.

Our appointment was at 9am and we were on time, however, the office was not. We didn't see anyone until 11am! Two whole hours. All I could think was, I could be sleeping right now. Once it began, the appointment went smoothly. KayTar had negative scratch test results to all tree nuts and peanuts, which was old news. The new news is that she didn't cry or fuss at all this go 'round. She was a total pro. She is still classified as nut allergic for now, but we have a peanut challenge scheduled for November and from there we will schedule a tree nut challenge. If all goes well, then we can lift the nut ban! CHOCOLATE, PEANUT BUTTER, REESE'S CUPS. I can taste it already. On the other hand, if all goes well, then we are left with idiopathic angioedema (fancy talk for this type of swelling without an obvious cause) and she'll have to go through some immune testing to determine if things are functioning properly, like her complement system.

As soon as we got home (which was around 3 in the afternoon!), I gave the Snot Factory some Benadryl and she ended up falling asleep on my chest for 3+ hours. I skipped class because I was too tired to function on any type of intelligent level (and Chemistry is crazy difficult to stay awake in on a normal night) and I had a sweet little girl asleep on me that I didn't want to disturb. Last night we BOTH got some sleep. It was awesome. She's still feeling rough, but we're managing it with Benadryl/Albuterol and fluids through her g-tube. She has had little to no Pediasure in the past couple of days, which makes me a tiny bit anxious about the possibility of this resulting in an episode, but we'll play it by ear and hope for the best.