Thursday, August 7, 2008

Mia's Doc Hopping Week

Monday was our big skin prick test day at National Jewish. For those of you who've never had or seen a SPT, they use little needles dipped in allergens to poke at a grid on your back. As you can see, the welts are what they are looking for. The ink grid on her back is laid out in the same manner as the needles in their trays so they can tell what is causing a rxn. They usually give about 15 minutes for all rxns to happen, but it didn't take more than 5 for Mia. The giant welt at the bottom is peanut, the vertical row all the way your left is all domestic meats plus milk, and some of the other bigger ones are things like garlic, onion, cashew and corn. She had other smaller welts that we'll obviously still avoid.


We did get some strange negatives though! Soybean actually caused no rxn, but Doc said to wait until we get the RAST (blood test) results. She reacted strongly before, and since it's a legume like the peanut, we'll also bring in a soybean for the fresh food SPT next week (yes, we get to do it again.) Other negatives were sesame seed, english walnut and oat. I'm not ready to give her seeds and nuts yet so we're on day two of our oatmeal trial. She loved it yesterday but is being stubborn today. She's also super clingy and had to be held the entire morning. I wasn't allowed to go farther than two feet without her grabbing onto my legs and crying. It could be the gray weather, we're going to stick it out!


On Tuesday we drove back up to Denver to see the hematologist at Children's. It wasn't an emergency situation or anything, we just needed to find out exactly what kind of anemia she has. They drew some blood and determined that it's "anemia of chronic illness", not iron deficiency which means that iron infusions won't help. For this kind, treating the underlying cause is how you resolve it. Ball just bounced back into the GI court!


Yesterday we went up once more to see the dermatologist...a whole day early! Doh! The receptionist was great and worked us in so we didn't make a wasted trip. I'm always ridiculously early (just ask Helen!)


We had rain yesterday and the day before, and today it was downright chilly! I have pants and a sweater on which is odd considering the record highs last week! We need the rain though; maybe it will help revive our pitiful back yard.


It occurred to me last night that I will have a three year old this month. It also occurred to me during the bloody fit she threw at the commissary. We had a very mild two year old, even with all of the medical drama and everyone always commented on how sweet and well behaved she was. I've noticed it doesn't happen as much lately! It's mostly the quick frustration. She gives up so fast and gets angry when she can't make something work immediately. She throws herself to the ground in grand theatrics and just can't come out of the disappointment that she didn't master X-Task right away.


I'm POSITIVE that Mia has ditched the English language in favor of Elvish. She is coming up with some very intricate words with difficult pronunciations, and I've lost my translation manual.

1 comment:

Sierra said...

Poor little mia. She looks like she got attacked by the mosquito brigade. I'm glad that you are finally getting things worked out though and getting some answers.
I totally think kids get weird with the weather. You know the kind of weather we have been having here... Rain, rain, rain, mostly cloudy, overcast, rain. It's tough, but we try to enjoy any dry weather we can get.
Happy Birthday to Mia! Kaia has been getting really frustrated too. I don't know if it is an anxiety, diet or just plain cranky-for-no-reason issue, but it is really testing my patience too.
I think in Kaia's case it has something to do with having an intense emotion (frustration) and not having the right language to convey it. Elvish just doesn't translate as well as RAAARH and kicking and screaming. Although, Kaia will try using elvish words louder and louder with the same annunciation before she will freak out. When you find your translation manual, will you send me a copy?