Appointment Bonanza

Today was a doozy of a day.  Tim was at Joey's appointment all day with him; and Chris, Ilse, and I went to Ilse's allergist.  The allergist appointment was a good one; I caught the doctor up on everything that has been going on-- apparently we hadn't seen him since Dec. of 2012.  I didn't tell him that had been intentional.  I really was pleasantly surprised by this appointment; my concerns were addressed extremely well, and I think the doctor went above and beyond with allergies he wants to test Ilse for.  He also listened to me when I gently steered him away from skin testing, and I think I even succeeded in making him think it was his idea not to do it.  :)  He said it is rare to be allergic to beef, but when he heard what had happened with the hives and the progression of the symptoms from barfing/snot to hives/barfing/snot, he agreed we had to test for it.  He is also testing her for egg yolk and something called ovomucoid, which he said is the blood test that will tell us if Ilse will also be allergic to cooked egg, which would be things like cake.  He asked me if we were staying away from eggs completely, to which I asked him if eggs were in bread, because I give her bread, and he said they are.  However, I got home and there aren't any eggs in the bread we currently have, so I honestly don't know if she has had any eggs since I decided to take her off of them back in Dec. 2011. 

We're also testing her for a lot of airborne allergies/dust/dander, etc., all the normal nuts, and also all her immune testing again.  I hope her IgG levels have continued to rise.  I would be very happy to be able to stop giving her her daily Bactrim.  I have been thankful for that drug every day but if I could stop giving it that would be nice, for Ilse and for me.  No doubt though, I'd wonder every day what I'd forgotten.  :)

After Ilse's appointment, Chris and I stopped at Chick-fil-a to eat lunch, and then we meandered our way to get Ilse's blood drawn.  I say 'meandered' because I felt like I was in that Harry Potter scene where the stairways keep moving.  I could swear the roads where moving today and not taking me where I needed to go.  Maybe I was just tired or completely out of it, but my ipad directions weren't helping me.  We eventually made it to one LabCorp, only to realize before walking in that I had locked my purse, keys, and cell phone in the car.  Fail.  Thank the Lord I had my Bluetooth on my ear, so if I stood real close to the car door, I could redial the last number, which again, thankfully, was Tim.  He called our insurance company's road side assistance.  Chris and I stood around the car for awhile because I was loathe to leave my purse there unsupervised.  Chris pretended that he was climbing to the top of the building to see if there were weeds up there.  He kept having to get longer and longer ladders and then finally bigger and bigger trampolines just to get up there.  Then, of course, he was stuck and we had to call 911 to get him down.  They made him jump into a big bucket of water, and then crazy boy, he did it all again.  The second time he managed to climb down, though.  He also was a painter, and he painted the car all the different things that I, the customer, demanded.  That pretending is one of my all time favorite memories of Chris.  We finally decided to run up to the third floor to see if we could get Ilse's blood drawn before the locksmith came, only to be told by the lab tech that not only did Ilse not have a good enough vein, but that he didn't think he could do it anyway.  :( 

We rushed back downstairs, but couldn't get ahold of Tim to know when the locksmith was coming, so we risked missing him to run inside again to go to the potty.  Phew!  That was one necessary trip.  We made it back outside just in time to flag the locksmith down.  He'd been lost.  :)  After signing his papers, we drove off and then it occurred to me to check for Ilse's lab orders and they were missing!  I'm so glad I thought to check.  We drove back through the parking lot and found them on the ground close to where we had parked.  Apparently they had blown off the stroller when I had put it away.

We eventually found another LabCorp, and they managed to get Ilse's blood with one stick.  I was so shocked, Ilse didn't whimper at all, even when the lady was fishing in her skin for a vein, whereas when the tech at the first location put the rubber band on her just to look for a vein, she flipped out.  Of course, he didn't take care not to pinch her skin. 

Tim was finished with Joey's appt. as soon as I arrived at the second LabCorp, but he was happy nicely waiting until we were done.  I went to West Plano again (about the third time for the day) and picked them up.  When Tim got in the car, he remarked on the time, and I couldn't believe it... the clock in the car was two hours off.  I had no idea when that happened and I felt bad that Ilse was an hour late for her second lunch.  :(  Consequently, I am still not done feeding her for the night.  More on that later.

Joey went wild when we got home.  I didn't blame him (although I did send him outside.)  Sitting in a hospital for six hours is too much for an energetic boy, but he did very very well I'm told.  Poor kid starved all day, so I fed him two meals when he got home to make up for it.  We're waiting for the results of that test.  I honestly don't know what to think; Tim got mixed messages from the radiologist.  Sometimes he would say the barium was moving very slowly; other times he'd say it was nearly normal.  So I don't know.

We got the babies in bed; my kitchen is a disaster.  But, we all have clean laundry to wear and after therapy tomorrow we get to go to another incredibly important appointment-- Chris' ENT appt.  I am quite eager to get this ear tube surgery scheduled.  My poor baby doesn't complain (wish he did, then at least I might know he had an ear ache before the dumb thing bursts) and so he is a joy to have around no matter what he feels like.

We're all over the strep, if Tim and I really had it.  Ilse is having bad seasonal allergies, but I am refusing to give her Claritin.  I just can't handle it.  I plan to give her some Benadryl here in a bit when I feed her again.

About Ilse's food: since she is just shy of 23 pounds and is now eating 180mls of blend every three hours, I somehow unconsciously decided that I needed to start feeding her more.  So, now she's getting more food per day, and in order to get it back to the nice five meals we were at with the eventual goal of three meals and two snacks, I'm going to have to up her per meal volume.  It can wait until after she is better, though.  I'm still concerned I'm not giving her enough calories, but no one has told me that, so I guess I shouldn't worry about it too much. 

I did reschedule her GI appt., because it was just going to be too much to do today, what with the car lock out and everything.  That dr is going to tell me I am feeding her too much.  :)

Thanks for bearing with this long update, if you made it this far!

Here's a picture from when Ilse fell asleep on me after a day of wild Claritin speed baby antics.  Precious, precious memory.  She hasn't slept on me in such a long, long time.  I remind her occasionally of how she used to sleep on me, but up until now she hasn't cared to do it again.  I'll treasure this memory forever.  I missed out on a lot of the cuddling new moms get to have with their babies.  I was either pumping or Ilse was barfing... so this really means a lot to me.