It’s Always Something

Monday night, the Geek woke up in the middle of the night and went to eat some cereal.  Somehow, a bite of cereal managed to crack one of his teeth!  He said it hurt like crazy, and was not feeling very well Tuesday.

The dentist said the tooth is not salvageable, so today he’s going in to have it yanked.  Then we get to discuss what options ($$$) are available for replacing his tooth.  Yay.

Monday night, we made the tough decision to give Mr. Happy some acetaminophen for his teething pain.  Sunday night he did the “wake up lots and comfort nurse and moan loudly in pain” thing all night long and it wore. me. out.  The ice teether thing helps during the daytime, but I can’t replace ice cubes every ten minutes during the night so they’re no help then!

Ibuprofen works on his pain, but also is a mild, slow trigger for him.  We didn’t want to do it again, not after caving in earlier in the month.

BUT…he’s on the tail end of a reaction (probably to that ibuprofen!) and I was seriously concerned that he might react to the acetaminophen just because his system wasn’t at baseline yet.  I didn’t want to ‘ruin’ acetaminophen for him just because of some teething pain.

The Mama’s on the FPIES boards said some of them have had good luck with pain relieving suppositories, but the one most recommended has corn in it and Mr. Happy, we think, reacts to corn.  The idea of putting something his body doesn’t like directly into his rectum was horrifying.  And there wasn’t time before bed to get suppositories compounded specially for him.

The ladies also recommended amber necklaces, which most wrap around the babies ankles at night with a sock over it.  Apparently it releases a type of pain reliever into the skin on contact, and some of the ladies swear by them.  But, not enough time to order one online.

SO…we gave him the acetaminophen.  

It helped, but not as much as ibuprofen did.  We gave him another dose at about 9:00 a.m. He seemed fine!  I was so relieved!  Then came The Signs…

• Two diarrhea diapers.  And they STANK.
• The Red Ring of Doom (aka Allergy Ring – a red ring around the anus that signifies a reaction)
• Bright red cheeks
• Spit up

It’s not a major reaction, but it’s enough for me to yank acetaminophen and call it a “not safe” medicine.  It’s a sign his body doesn’t like it, and that’s enough for me.

I miss baseline.

Around the time we were giving Mr. Happy his second dose of poison, Mr. Charm was happily munching away on a piece of rye bread (a new loaf I found at the health food store after our cross-contamination problem) slathered with peanut butter and a clementine.

Suddenly, mid-meal, he ran to the bathroom and dug around until he found the Neosporin. We wrestled it away from him, but he started crying “Boo-boo!” until finally the Geek asked him “Do you have a boo-boo?”

He stopped crying long enough to say “uh-huh!”

The Geek asked where his boo-boo was, and Mr. Charm stuck out his tongue.  He really wanted us to slather Neosporin on his tongue!  The Geek told him we couldn’t put it on his tongue, and said “Is that your only boo-boo?”

Mr. Charm shook his head ‘no’ and pointed to his cheeks and his throat.  I had noticed that his face looked a little red, but when he did that I looked closer.  His face was red – but only around his mouth and on his cheeks.

His face had done that a few times over the last week, but I had attributed it to the cold, dry weather.  Thinking on it, it only happened on days when he ate the new rye bread with peanut butter.

Oh, hell.

So we gave him a dose of dipenhydramine (Benadryl) and his face started to clear up right away.  Oh, double hell.

About 3 or 4 hours later, his red face was back.  He was eating lunch and he suddenly started crying and pointing to his chest, throat and mouth saying “Boo-boo!”  Another dose of dipenhydramine for the reaction that wouldn’t end.

We gave him another dose at bedtime as a precaution – we won’t be in there monitoring him every moment and this might help stave off anything worse until morning.

So now we have an email in to the manufacturer of the new rye bread, asking about their manufacturing practices, cleaning practices between lines, and possible cross-contamination issues.

And we’ve gotten rid of all the peanut butter in the house.  Just in case.  

The Mama’s on the boards all agreed: it could be any one of those foods – but you Don’t Mess With A Peanut Allergy.  And while Mr. Charm only barely tested reactive to peanut when he was 1 year old (the allergist assured me that his prick test basically amounted to him having a skin sensitivity to peanut, but that it was fine to eat), the Mama’s confirmed what I thought I had heard before: a peanut allergy can manifest from nothing to deadly from one exposure to peanuts to the next.  

So I know at least ONE test we’ll make sure to do in Atlanta in a couple of weeks!

This was just an icky, yucky day for the boys in my life.  I’m so tired of the constant something  that we have to deal with.  We so rarely get long stretches of “things are good”.  Every time we turn around it seems like something happens that rocks our world and messes with our health.

It feels kinda bi-polar at times.

I hate the idea that on top of everything else, we may have a peanut IgE to deal with.  THAT  is scary.  Really scary.  

And even counting my sore throat that still hasn’t gone away?  I’m the member of the family doing the BEST right now.

That’s just sad.

Anyone else ever had an IgE pop up out of nowhere on a previously safe food?  Anyone else ever crack a tooth on something as harmless as cereal?  Anyone else have no pain reliever you can give your baby any more?  Anyone else – to steal a phrase from the FPIES FB board – want out of the crazy?