Showing posts with label Allergies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Allergies. Show all posts

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Allergies, Allergies, Oh My ....

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Here is Kaedyn doing his Asthma blowing test.  


Facebook Status: At Kaedyn's allergy appt....Kaedyn is allergic to every nut there is almost....Walnut 2, Cashew 3, Pistachio 3, Peanut 3, Hazelnut 3, Pecan 2, no reaction to Macadamia Nut, Brazil Nut, & Almond... The numbers go from 0 to 6 .. 6 being most severe... That's the blood test results.... He is still getting spot testing...

So they decided to test him for half strength Almond and Brazil Nut...   along with some food panels ...  (they were ONLY going to the two half strength nuts today - I guess they don't carry a oil for Macadamia Nuts.)  But I talked her into doing other stuff.  I didn't feel it was right to keep him off all his allergy meds for two tests.   Plus, it's not just this past week, it's all of the next week too cuz he has more tests on Tuesday.
Getting the tests done..... 
This was at 5 minutes and 10 minutes .... 

By the time they did the measuring - the Almond spot actually decreased.  They have it as a +1 but it was more like a +3.  

These results, also - are from negative to 4 being most severe.  

So far, this is everything that he's allergic to.  

Now - can someone explain to me how my child can be super allergic to Peanut Butter - like AS allergic to Peanut Butter as he is to Cashews and - he - doesn't - react ... not to peanut butter.  


Allergic Reactions

A person with nut or peanut allergies could have a mild reaction — or it could be more severe. An allergic reaction usually happens right away, but some people can have another reaction a few hours after they eat a nut or peanut.
Here are some of the problems an allergic reaction can cause:
  • Skin: Skin reactions are the most common type of food allergy reactions. They can take the form of itchy, red, bumpy rashes (hives); eczema; or redness and swelling around the mouth or face. A rash can happen when a nut or peanut comes in contact with the skin, even without eating it.
  • Gastrointestinal system: Symptoms can take the form of belly cramps, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.
  • Respiratory system: Symptoms can range from a runny or stuffy nose, itchy, watery eyes, and sneezing to the triggering of asthma with coughing and wheezing.
  • Cardiovascular system: A person may feel lightheaded or even faint.
In the most serious cases, a nut or peanut allergy can cause anaphylaxis (say: an-uh-fuh-LAK-sis). Anaphylaxis is a sudden, life-threatening allergic reaction. A person's blood pressure can drop, breathing tubes can narrow, and the tongue can swell.
People at risk for this kind of a reaction have to be very careful and need a plan for handling emergencies, when they might need to use special medicine to stop these symptoms from getting worse.
So I guess that Tree Nuts (Cashews) and Peanuts are very much separate allergies.  Kaedyn has anaphylaxis towards cashews.  Doesn't mean he will towards Peanuts - because he doesn't.  

But he does have a lot of the other reactions.  He gets itchy, he gets hives, he has eczema, stuffy nose, etc - but with all his allergies - it's going to be hard to pin point.  HOWEVER ....  I guess we know and we'll just have to keep an eye on him.  Without him reacting - with life threatening ways - we really don't need to become a peanut free home.  

Saturday, May 16, 2015

The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 11* We're Going HOME!

Previously .... on the Crazy Hospitalization ....
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 1-2*  ,,,,
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 3* The ER  ....
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 4* The Day of Sleep 
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 5* Party Like A Rock Star 
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 6* Crashing Down Down Down 
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 7* On the Roller-coaster
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 8* Exhaustion
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 9* Out of the ICU
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 10* No End in Sight.... 

DAY 9 in the HOSPITAL

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So he is off IV fluids and support. His cath was removed (with resistance and two attempts)... In 4 hours he will have a bladder scan. Depending on that, we could finally go home. He seems to be tolerating his new oral antibiotics...


After the doctors started to trickle in a bit .... and they shocked me by saying that most likely - we'd be going home!  I was ... truthfully - a little scared, but oh so excited.

I am faced the fact that my son was sooooooo sick he was in the ICU and they ALMOST couldn't manage his blood pressure.  And he flipped the coin so quickly from doing so well to doing badly and lets face it - we THINK it was because of the meds, but we don't REALLY know for sure right now.  And that's scary.   That's really scary.   Luckily - we are literally 5 minutes from our local hospital and ER.

Nathan was showing a little more of himself, and that made me feel better.  He was "cutting" his fruit, putting it on the end of a fork, and eating it... lol....


He pooped!!!

So I made him get up and walk.  They unhooked him from all the monitors, and didn't put him back on.  We walked down to the parent lounge, down the hallway the opposite way, went back to the room and after awhile we walked down tot he playroom.


When we got back, he wanted to sit in the chair instead of the bed.  Yay!!!  I ended up taking off his leads and all that....  and we got dressed in REAL clothes prior to walking down to the playroom.


This was a really cool mobile in the parent lounge.  I got a picture of it after we got the okay to go home and I was packing up the food we had left in the refrigerator and freezer in the lounge.

Nathan didn't need to be told twice -  He got in his wheelchair and he put Sam in his shirt, and hung onto Ben and was all ..... lets get out of this joint!!!


And he was BEYOND happy when we got in the van .....   We're OUTTA here!


Goodbye Seattle - can't say it's been fun.   Not this time....  

He finally crashed in the van on the way home....  still holding Sam and Ben by his side...

Home ..... I'm ready to sleep for a year....

But here is his feed bag for the night.   Home Sweet Home!  Yep!



Friday, May 15, 2015

The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 10* No End in Sight....


Previously .... on the Crazy Hospitalization ....
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 1-2*  ,,,,
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 3* The ER  ....
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 4* The Day of Sleep 
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 5* Party Like A Rock Star 
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 6* Crashing Down Down Down 
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 7* On the Roller-coaster
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 8* Exhaustion
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 9* Out of the ICU

DAY 8 in the HOSPITAL

DB ... the bed hog at home, and in the hospital....  his feet always claim the whole bed.  Now, his excuse?  I wanted to be close to you!!  Yeah, one day I will wear spurs to bed and jack you up!

Our amazing Super Nathan!  Not feeling well again this morning.


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Friday Morning Update: I was kinda waiting for rounds. But not sure when that will be. We got moved out of ICU last night.. Yay!... Still no idea when we are going home. So Nathan is nauseated this morning. He is peeing out more than he is taking in. His left testical is swollen now. Noticed it was swollen last night, it's swollen a little more this morning.. His stats are good but his blood pressure has been on the low side the last three. Hoping that picks up. He isn't passing gas or pooping, they are talking about an enema. I think that's about it right now. He is sitting up this morning. Eating a tiny amount (4 bites of eggs and 2 bites of bacon.. A sip of milk.)...

Doctors are doing rounds on the room next to us, my guess.... we're next....



My message to Nathan...... Eat - Drink - Poop and GET BETTER!


Pretty much the plan was for him to start moving his tummy and hope that things help ....  oral antibiotics were ordered for tonight...  and it was noticed that now that his right scrotum was looking so much better, not swollen, not red, not super sensitive to touch.....  the left one is starting to swell.   It started to swell last night and then was worse this morning.


We are being SILLY ....


Seriously - do you know how amazing it feels to see him smiling again and laughing!  <3 Love!



Poor Piggy's eye got jacked cuz I accidentally put the side of my hand on it..... when... it... was...still... wet....


Mommy made him a SUPER NATHAN hat!  HE ... was....  not impressed.  ::: le sigh :::

Better picture of his room ... both sides.


Poor kid is just soooooooo tired.  He sleeps... a lot.   After arts & crafts he was just .... meh... I'm done.

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Guess they are going to get him started on some oral antibiotics tonight. Make sure he doesn't have a bad reaction to them. Maybe get rid of the cath tomorrow. He eats very little. Drinks even less. Super weak. But he's starting to laugh and smile more. We see peeks of Nathan.


Kaedyn and I video chatted .... he says "We face-timed" ...  he figured out how to call me on FB and Google Plus and yeah.....  he knows - he is a smart cookie....


After awhile, we just make faces and stick out our tongues at each other.....

Nate sleeps.....


Um.....  I have to amuse myself SOMEHOW in here....



Yeah - he pretty much slept all day after arts & crafts.   And me?  Well.... I was all by my lonesome (DB went home to check on the kids and do some stuff cuz it sounded like we'd be there all weekend and until at least Monday) ....  so I dug into the chocolates I got for Mother's Day .. and well, I stopped after the second one.  I don't enjoy allergic reactions so it put a damper on things.  Luckily it was minor and I worked through it myself, but dang .... I almost had to ask for benedryl :( They look nummy though!  Wish I could eat them :(



We are grateful for EVERYONE who's prayed, sent positive healing thoughts vibes whatever.....  for everyone who has sent things to cheer up Nathan (and myself) .... for everyone who has kept up on updates and messaged me (even though I wasn't very good at getting back to people) ....  for our visitors!!  It was a nice break.  For everyone who did the smallest thing to the greatest thing.   Thank you!!!

Continue onto Day 9 in the hospital :  The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 11* We're Going HOME!

Thursday, May 14, 2015

The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 9* Out of the ICU


Previously .... on the Crazy Hospitalization ....
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 1-2*  ,,,,
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 3* The ER  ....
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 4* The Day of Sleep 
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 5* Party Like A Rock Star 
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 6* Crashing Down Down Down 
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 7* On the Roller-coaster
The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 8* Exhaustion

DAY 7 IN THE HOSPITAL .....

Nathan woke up super nauseated again.  Cold washcloths are major comfort to him.

We got news after rounds that we were going to be moving to a regular room.  I didn't hesitate on packing up!


Then we found out that it was going to be awhile and we may end up staying one more night in the ICU.  Nathan was just tired.


They did a suppository on him....  brought this in.   Yep.   That's about all he did - stare at it. 


Look at those stats!!   Soooo much better!!!  Amazing!!!  And off soooo much of the support!  Eating strawberries in bed.....


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Nathan got a bath (real water and soap bath - not the bath wipes - still while he was in bed), bedding change, new leads, new gown (he isn't naked anymore!) .... He isn't eating much, drinking a few sips here and there.... Now he is taking a nap. He has been smiling and laughing! Which is amazing!! He is still extremely weak. He can barely move himself. He needs help to sit up. But that will get better. We are still in the PICU and maybe here tonight too. ‪#‎SuperNathan‬. Thank you to those who got him the Elmo and black Bear, he loves them. Sorry I haven't had the chance to thank you properly.

3pm he just petered out .....



Nate's nap gave DB and I the chance to eat together, in the tiny little parent lounge with no windows and three chairs.  Which was really nice, eating together, not the room ....  I'd been sleeping in a chair, couldn't eat together... had to walk a mile to pee .....  but I came back from dinner and saw this.  I turned, found Sam (his day nurse) and said "Does this mean we have a room?"   She's like - yep!

Last pictures of Nathan in the ICU ..... just before they started to move his bed through the hallways.... he was sleeping.  He slept the whole time.


This is the back of Sam the awesome nurse taking Nathan to his new room with some help....  and us with our large amount of accumulated stuff.....


We ended up getting placed right next door to the room we had started out in.  After the ER we were placed in the "old room" which we were in until he got put in the ICU... and after the ICU we were placed in the "New Room" .... ha ha ha... funny.

Scale and potty outside the door ....  Nathan lost about 3 lbs  :(


We got a care package from a fellow RSS Mom and we soooooooooo greatly appreciate it!!!  Sadly, they didn't even bother to let us know and we had to hunt it down.  Boo!


Nathan in his NEW room.... giving me the "eye" ..... well.... eyes....


Nathan's Room .....  we never had a roommate in this room - woot woot!

Continue onto : The Monkey In The Asylum *Day 10* No End in Sight....