Well, hi there! Long time no see!
I know. I’ve been MIA for a while. My Dad even asked me if I’d stopped blogging.
That’s a big NO! I have not stopped blogging.
I just…stopped writing for a bit.
Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on with me. I’m so exhausted lately I can barely function.
It’s not uncommon for me to feel drowsy while driving my car…at noon…after 7 hours of sleep.
My brain is also not on its game. I’m slow. Forgetful. Having a hard time concentrating.
I really don’t know why.
Is it:
A. the histamine floating in the air lately?
B. the TED (and lack of vitamins) finally catching up to me?
C. the 2.5 years (really 4.5 years) of interrupted, poor sleep finally wearing me out completely?
D. all of the above?
Or, scarier to think of, is it:
E. something completely new and troubling causing the exhaustion and fogginess?
I don’t know. I just know I’m bone weary, and would kill for a week or two to be alone in my house, living in my pajamas, laying on the couch all day watching cheesy movies and not talking to anyone. At all. With frequent naps.
I’m feeling a tad burnt out.
Maybe it’s just the stress of the last few months catching up to me now. We’ve not exactly had an easy time of it lately.
Whatever the cause, this is the explanation for why I disappeared. I can’t think to write, and I’m feeling crushed by the weight of the responsibilities I’m living with.
I hope I can pull it together soon; I miss being sharp and on the ball.
Even when I’m not actively writing, I still find myself thinking “Oh! I have to write about that!” or “Wow…that would be a great post.” So obviously, writing isn’t going away for me any time soon.
But enough about my bone-weary, brain-numbing, overwhelming exhaustion. Nobody likes a whiner, right?
Let’s talk kiddos!
I’m thrilled to report that…
BANANAS ARE STILL SAFE FOR ZAC!
Thank you, God!
They definitely aren’t an “unlimited” food, as the fructose does affect him. But they don’t cause FPIES reactions, and for that, I’m happy dancing.
Beyond that, we haven’t really progressed much.
I worked 6 days during the time between the last post and this one, and we don’t typically trial foods when I’m going to be gone.
While I was gone, though, Zac snuck two of Jed’s rice crackers and had no reaction.
When I was home, he took a couple bites of Jed’s unknown-to-us-unattended hamburgers and had no reaction.
Unfortunately, he did have a reaction to the sunbutter and blueberry jelly on sunflower-rye bread sandwich he sneaked a bite of last week. That isn’t too surprising; we already know sunflower isn’t safe for him.
The good news is that the reaction was very mild! No vomiting, no acidic diaper rashes, and no severe pain. Just some sleep disturbances for one night and some mushy, mucousy diarrhea for most of a day. That’s a nice improvement!
Next up for food trials is to continue re-trialing his suspect-safe foods that he reacted strangely to after the stomach bug. Sweet potato is next on the list.
Once we’ve worked our way through his previous safe foods, we’ll either resume the oats trial or begin a salmon trial.
Since he didn’t immediately react to the beef he snuck, a beef trial is definitely in our future. If salmon is safe, we can risk the beef trial. With salmon, there would be three sources of protein I could eat in case the beef proves unsafe and I have to cut it from my diet (pork, chicken, and salmon).
But a beef pass would be MARVELOUS. It’s the cheapest, most accessible, easiest meat we can get…and finally the whole family could eat a main course that was identical!
The boys went to the allergist last week for IgE re-testing. I was very worried after the night when Zac’s eyes swelled shut, but he showed negative for everything they tested him for.
Jed, sadly, still showed IgE for eggs, darnit all. I was really hoping he’d outgrown the egg allergy so I could whip up scrambled eggs for everyone in the mornings.
Oh, well. Another year with an Epi-pen for us.
Otherwise, things are pretty normal. There are some fun parenting stories I’d love to share, like how Jed opened a toy train at the bookstore to play with and they made me buy it ($35!!) so I confiscated his trains for a day as punishment and made him pay me back out of his piggy bank and then had to keep his trains for an extra day as the consequence of nagging me so much for his trains (yes, that was fun), or how Zac did a somersault into a mud puddle on the way back from Tulsa and had mud IN HIS DIAPER on the side of the road and we had to do a spit bath with water bottles (yes, that was fun, too – here’s a visual):
…but mostly I want to share this little conversation the boys had the day Zac ate Jed’s hamburgers.
After he snuck the hamburgers, I obviously removed them. Zac didn’t like that. He wanted to eat those hamburgers!
So he pitched a fit.
A MAJOR screaming fit.
Jed came up and knelt down next to Zac, and started the questions.
“Zac? Do you want eggs?”
“Uhn-uhn.”
“Do you want cookies?”
“Uhn-uhn.”
“Do you want muffins?”
“Uhn-uhn.”
“Do you want chicken?”
“Uhn-uhn.”
Jed looked up at me, then, and reported that Zac didn’t want anything. Then he looked back at Zac.
“Zac, do you want hamboogers?”
“Uh-huh!” Zac responded with a hopeful look on his face and sudden decrease in crying.
Jed responded with a sad smile on his face, “But Zac, you can’t have hamboogers. You’re allergic. Like I’m allergic to your food. I’m sorry, Zachy. (patting Zac’s arm) I’m very sorry you can’t have hamboogers, baby Zachy. But Mommy will make you other food!”
Can a heart melt and break at the same time? That’s sure what it felt like in my chest at that moment.
I had to hug Jed and tell him what a good big brother he is, and how proud I am of him for that.
I hate food allergies and intolerances so much. But they are doing one thing I’d hoped they would do: breed compassion and empathy in my boys.
What’s your best allergy-compassion story?
