More Allergies (sigh)

Last month, Nick ate a walnut and we ended up in the emergency room. Here is the link to that post: http://parkaysplace.blogspot.com/2012/02/er-trip-with-pickleagain.html

Tim and I were sure it was just a case of cross-contamination as the walnuts were processed in a plant that processes all tree nuts. To make sure of this, we set an appointment with his allergist to do a food challenge. A food challenge is where the patient goes to the allergist's office and under controlled and monitored conditions, eats the food in question, starting with a very small amount and continuing until a large amount of the food is consumed. After each portion the allergist or the assistant watches for a minute and then waits for awhile before giving another portion. A food challenge takes between 2 to 3 hours to be completed.

We had to provide walnuts that we knew were not contaminated at all. Thanks to Grandpa Dutson, we had 5 that were broken up. Around 9 am Nick was given a very small piece of walnut, about the size of his pinky nail or something. The doctor said it was a 1/32nd of a whole walnut, so pretty small. She left the room and not even 2 minutes later Nick said to me, "Mommy, my tongue hurts. My throw-up hurts." (FYI throw-up means throat). I told him to take a drink and he goes, "Mommy, I feel better." Then 10 seconds after that, "My throat hurts." I let the correct people know and in they came. The doctor, Dr. Cassall (who is phenomenal) checked his mouth and throat. It looked a little red. The assistant noticed his cheeks were red. Then he said his belly hurt. Nick got some medicine to help counter the reaction. Before it kicked in we noticed hived around his mouth. He was also making a weird swallowing motion with his head. Finally everything cleared up, he wasn't red anymore, nothing hurt and he was running and jumping all over again.

We were there a total of 1hr and 40 minutes. The diagnosis is: he can eat peanut butter (peanuts) and nutella since he has been eating those and been fine. He cannot eat any other types of nuts. He has to get some blood work done (the fun just never ends here) and then we'll know more. Now more than ever, we have to be so diligent in what he eats. He has already started understanding he can't eat certain things. When I was shelling the walnuts this morning he said to me, "I can't eat those. They make me sick." He didn't want to eat them at the doctor's either but I said, "It's OK, you'll be fine." Boy was I wrong! He wouldn't even eat the peanut M&M he found the other day because it had a peanut inside. However, so many things are processed in plants that also process tree nuts.

So now he is allergic to: walnuts, pecans, pistachios and cashews. He will not be trying pine nuts, macadamia nuts or brazil nuts. He will not eat almonds or coconut again either until after the blood work is back. What does he get to eat? Peanuts and hazelnuts. It could be worse though. It appears he has to actually ingest the nut for a reaction. So just being around it won't do anything. But we won't tempt fate, only peanut butter and nutella in our house from now on.

Potty Training

Monday was prep day. Tim ran errands with Pickle and at one stop Pickle got to pick his reward/treat for going potty in the toilet. I had called Tim to tell him this. He called me back a minute later saying, "I don't think it's going to be easy to train him" and told me this story:

"I told Pickle when we stopped at Target he was going to pick his treat as a reward for every time you go potty in the toilet. I told him he could pick whatever treat he wanted. He looked at me, pointed his finger and said, "I only want the treat!" 

When they got home I asked Pickle, "We're back from Uncle Ryan's house. Are you excited to learn to go potty in the toilet?"
"NO!" was his reply.

We had been telling him for a couple weeks that after we got back from Uncle Ryan's house, he would learn to go to potty in the toilet. I had been prepping him for awhile hoping that would help him get used to the idea. So after that exchange and story I went into potty training child #2 with the mindset it was going to be difficult and probably a battle of wills. I set myself up for having to clean up lots of accidents and that my patience would be tried. And once again I thought I was going to be eating a lot of my treats to reward my patience when accidents happen.

Tuesday morning came and I was somewhat dreading the idea of potty training him. I didn't have the energy to fight a 3 year old over the toilet and had thought about waiting for awhile. However, when I said, "Ok, let's get some underwear and take off your diaper" his response shocked me. He said, "Ok" and ran off to get his underwear. I was a bit stunned and figured I better get on his "potty chart". It's a piece of paper with a lot of little squares that he gets to put a sticker in every time he is successful in the bathroom. I was making that up and he was standing next me, underwear in hand, saying "Mommy, take my diaper off." I sat there thinking, "Who is this child? Where did he come from?"

So everything got set, he got in his underwear and now, he is potty trained! At least tinkle trained for sure. He's had 1 tinkle accident and nothing ever made it to the carpet. He woke up dry from naps and at night. Since he had done so well, we went out Wednesday to Pach's soccer camp to watch. Pickle was excited because he got to use the bathroom with the red towel. Hahahaha! Whatever works! We have been out a few times and he has done mostly well. We are still working on pooping but for someone who was so adamant about not learning how to use the toilet, he sure has done well. And I only got a couple rewards for myself. I did decide though, I'm pretty calm and good about accidents of any kind during potty training. I decided I needed rewards for everyday life instead. I might actually get to eat some of them!

On a side note: If you ever use a treat for a reward for going in the toilet, red vines are not a good idea. One or two a day is fine but 20 will definitely do things to them you don't want to deal with, especially when potty training! Go with chocolate!

Roadie? What?

On the way home from Utah yesterday, we made our usual breakfast stop at the McDonald's in Beaver. After we finished eating and got everyone buckled in, I said, "Ok, let's stop at the gas station and get some chocolate milk for the road" as I drove across the parking lot. Once I got there, Pickle cried out from the back he wanted to come with me. I said, "No stay in the car with dad" as I hurried in (not only to be fast but it was 32 outside!) and got the goods. When I climbed back in the car, Pickle was in the back crying. The following was our conversation:

"Pickle, what's wrong?
"You didn't get my any chocolate milk!" (he was crying and had the saddest face).
"Mom did too. It's right here," Tim said holding up a bottle of chocolate milk.
"No, I need some chocolate milk for the roadie! I need to put chocolate milk on the roadie!"
"Did he just say roadie?" I whispered to Tim.
"Yes," Tim whispered back.
"Pickle, we don't put chocolate milk on the road."
"I need chocolate milk for the roadie. I want to put it on the roadie!!!" (he was screaming at this point).
"The road will be fine Pickle. Drink your chocolate milk."

He finally quieted down and drank his chocolate milk. Tim and I were laughing. Roadie? Where does he get this stuff?

Zoo Trips

Awhile ago my friend, M, asked me if I could watch her daughter, L, for her in a few weeks. That play date was last week. Since I was going to watch her all day I decided we should make a trip to the zoo as it would be way more fun than hanging out at my house all day with 3 little boys and no girl toys.

Here we come zoo! Yep, the kids all had Cheetos to eat.

Watching the tortoises walk around.

Using their coloring pages as "casts".
L's older brother has had 2 casts in the last few months.

My friend, W and I decided to have a play date at the zoo with all our kids. I invited the boys friend J and we all had a blast! So much fun in fact, we didn't get to see all the animals or check out the zoo store. Therefore we will be heading back to do just that.

On the tortoise.

Feeding the ducks.

All alone. Pickle wanted exclusive
attention from the ducks.

Salsa, Salsa and more Salsa

A good friend of mine gave me a bunch of tomatoes and green peppers. So very nice but way more than we would ever eat in a week and being fresh vegetables, weren't going to last that long anyway. I decided to make some salsa. We like salsa and the recipe I found called for both those plus a few other things. So today I made salsa. I don't know that I'll ever do it again. Last night I prepped the onions, tomatoes and green peppers. Today I did the jalapenos and all else. My house stinks!!! I think I'm getting sick from the smell! All the windows in the house are open and I have candles on. Though that has proven to be a slight tempation to Pickle. He "lit" the green dry erase marker by putting the tip in a flame and now it doesn't work anymore. Guess it's better than burning down the house, right?

The salsa looks good and hopefully tastes good. It is cheaper than store bought but......the smell alone will probably entice me back to stocking up when salsa is on sale at the store. I made 5 pints and 6 half-pints. Hopefully we like it otherwise...... (pictures might be coming soon).

ER Trip with Pickle......Again

Sept. 2009: Nursemaid Elbow (mom's fault)
Oct. 2010: Allergic Reaction to Cashews (in the ambulance)
Feb. 2012: Allergic Reaction to ?? (in the ambulance)

Those are the trips to the ER we've made with Pickle. We drove when he had Nursemaid's Elbow and he was mostly fine. Just in a small amount of pain. We were there for 3 hours and all they had to do was pop his elbow back together.

The first trip from an allergic reaction was a little more exciting than the Nursemaid's Elbow. Pickle had been tested for allergies in the broad form: eggs, peanuts, milk, soy, fish and wheat but nothing specific. He had tested positive for peanuts but he ate peanut butter, almonds and pecans with no problems, so we (the allergist and me) figured it was a mild peanut allergy. Boy were we wrong! Cashews are my favorite nut and I had just purchased a big tin of regular and a smaller one of the honey roasted. Pickle asked for some and I gave him 2 1/2. I figured he could have them because he was allergic to "peanuts" and didn't think twice. Well, he started choking, coughing, convulsing a bit and was covered in horrible hives. Red splotchy ones with little white heads. I, of course, panicked! I called a friend who calmly said, "Give him some Benadryl and call 911." Ever the obedient one, I did just that, while I was washing him off and wrapping him in a towel. My friend took Pach and the paramedics came, did their thing and off we went to the ER. He got a white tiger beanie baby in the ambulance and then promptly fell asleep. At the ER we met up with Tim and sat in a room for a couple hours while Pickle was monitered. He ended up being just fine. The doctor, a nice guy name Tim, talked to us and gave us a prescription for an Epi-Pin Jr. just in case. When we left, Pickle was running all over the room, laughing hysterically as he threw the tiger all over with dad.

I immediately made an appointment with his allergist and she did skin tests and ordered blood tests for all the tree nuts, coconut and macadamia nuts included. I never thought of coconut as a nut before! He came back hugely positive for cashews and pistachios. I was not thrilled at all. I was happy to know what he was allergic to but sad for me. Those are my two favorite nuts! :(

Pickle has not had a problem with the allergies. He's been great and we've been very diligent in what he eats. When we go places we check to see if there are cashews or pistachios in anything. At Christmas I went to a cookie exchange. One of the delicious cookies was a pistachio cookie. Mine went to someone else. I was glad I found that out! We never even had to use our first set of Epi-Pins and I was so excited! In October we got 2 new sets, yep 2. Our allergist told us to keep 2 together at all times for two reasons: 1) we are far away from the ambulance and 2) the first one doesn't work for some reason. I hated throwing out his first set because we hadn't used them! It seemed like a "waste of money" even though they were only $25. I would pay a lot more than that just to have them and the peace of mind they bring.

On to today, Thursday Feb. 16, 2012. Joy School (co-op preschool) was at our house today. It started with Pickle having a hugely bloody nose! It was all over his face, arms, hands and shirt! I was screaming at him to keep the tissue on his nose because he wouldn't hold it there! It was frusterating and I'm sure I over reacted a tad bit by screaming at him. We got that taken care of and him in a new shirt and then off we went. The lessons this week were about trying things, seeing what we are good at and what we can become good at if we try. So for our snack time I decided we would try different foods. I gave all the kids one of each of the following: dried apricot, dried craisin, everything pretzel, olive, walnut and feta cheese. After trying those they got vanilla wafers and popcorn.

At some point, Pickle started whining about his mouth hurting but when I looked everything was ok. He didn't have anything stuck in his teeth and there was no blood so I figured he was fine. He said his "belly" hurt but his pointing indicated his esophogas. I thought maybe he had some food stuck there but could still breathe. (Afriend of mine's son had this issue, which is why I thought of it). I got him some 7-Up and he seemed fine after a couple small dixie cups full. We finished our snacks and went into the livingroom to read a story and discuss a few things. After that we headed back to the kitchen to make our spiders when I noticed the hives with white heads all around his mouth. Not a good sign at all. I called my friend Martha to come help with the kids and got Pickle some Benadryl. He took that and went back to making his spider. He was all hunched over and Martha said, "Emily, look at him. He's having a hard time breathing." He was. I grabbed him, took him to the livingroom, pulled his pants down and shot him with the Epi-Pin!!!

Oh, that was horrible! I had to jam it into his thigh and hold it there for 10 seconds to make sure the medicine got in him. He was screaming and yelling and crying. I didn't blame him. I had never done that before so I didn't expect quite the loud pop of the needle coming out and piercing his skin. I plopped him in my chair and dialed 911 (which you have to do after you use an Epi-Pin). The dispatcher asked if that was him screaming bloody murder in the background. Yep, it was. He was an unhappy little boy. She sent the paramedics and I headed to get the poor boy a band-aid. Meanwhile, Martha was over at the table with the other 6 kids saying, "Ok, let's put the legs on the spider. If you do it like this, it looks like the spider is crawling off the paper at you." It was so great to have her there!

The ambulance arrived and since there were a bunch of kids at my house, the entire entry way was littered with coats, shoes and backpacks. The last time they came, the paramedics just carried a couple bags in. This time the whole gurney came in! And of course, this happened to be right at the end of Joy School so all the moms started arriving! First up was Cathy, whose daughter has a severe egg allergy! She popped her head in and made her way to the kitchen. She helped keep the kids in the kitchen when all they wanted to do was watch and look at the ambulance with it's lights flashing!

The gurney finally got taken back out to the ambulance, I grabbed a car seat for Pickle and off we went as more moms arrived! I am so greatful for the moms of the other Joy School kids. They just sent me off and took care of Pach and Bacon (who thankfully was asleep the whole time)! In fact, when we got home all the Joy School stuff had been picked up! It was so nice and a very welcome surprise!

I called Tim from home and let him know what happened. We agreed to meet at Tucson Medical Center. He beat us there. We might have gotten there first but we had to pull over so the paramedic could put an IV in Pickle. However, it didn't work, so Pickle just cried a lot more. He was such a brave little kid though! He clung to his little cow, he little beanie baby he got this trip. We got right into a room in the Pediatric ER and Pickle was glad to see dad! So was I. It always makes things like this easier with the spouse there! After the two initial nurses and whoever came, there was a knock on the door and I thought, "Wow, the doctor already. That was quick!" It wasn't the doctor, instead in walked the Relief Society President from our ward Janelle. One of the other Joy School moms had called and told her what happened. She was already on her way into town so she just stopped by. It was really nice and sweet. She also went and got me some food. It was after noon and I hadn't eaten anything! We waited and right after she came back with my food, the doctor arrived and she left. I am so greatful she came and so greatful for wonderful friends who were looking out for us.

So the doctor came in. His name was Tim. Yep, IT WAS THE SAME DOCTOR WE HAD WHEN WE WENT IN LAST TIME!!! Tim (my husband) said, "I think you were the attending doctor when we came last time." Anyway, he looked over Pickle, taking his vitals and all. He looked great except for his face. It was still a little swollen. The doctor cleared Pickle to go home and also to eat. So he left, the nurse came and gave Pickle some Tylenol. He had been complaining his leg hurt (where I shot him). So he had the Tylenol and ate all my fries. We could tell he was feeling better because when he found the onion ring in his fries, he started playing with it like a ring and after he ate part of it, it became a snake!

We finally had all our discharge papers and were out the door around 2:30 pm. I had called the ambulance around 11:15 am. We came home and Martha dropped Pach and Bacon off. And Pickle is totally fine. His face isn't swollen anymore and he is back to his old self. I am so greatful for modern medicine and that little Pickle is just fine. So next week we go back to the allergist for more testing. I'm not sure what it could have been since he'd already had all the foods we tried. Here are some pictures of the journey:

In the ambulance. The face should say it all. A little blurry
because the ambulance is not as smooth as it looks!

With his onion ring.

With his onion ring snake.

Worn out little boy on the ride home.

The used Epi-Pin. Normally the orange tip is all the
way up and not really visible.

LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW!

Global Warming? I don't think so. It's February 14th in Southern Arizona and we got SNOW!!! All the boys got dressed in their warm clothes (yes, we actually have clothes that are suitable for snowy cold weather, gloves on the other hand.....) and out we went. This was Bacon's first time in snow but the older boys are pros. I snapped a few pictures of them all together before heading out to help Pach and Pickle build a small, slightly lumpy snowman. He didn't last long :( As soon as I finished the picture, Pach picked him up and threw him down on the ground and laughed as the snowman "exploded". Bacon was put down for a nap and the older boys played for about an hour. We had to change gloves a couple times to keep hands dry, though not necessarily warm. They were so sad when the sun came out and melted all the snow.

The three happy boys. Yes, that is a UW hat Pach is wearing. Go HUSKIES!

Happy little Bacon!

Snow does not stop the construction from happening here.

He loves the snow!

It was coming down pretty hard. It was great.

The crazy one eyed snowman and two happy boys.