FPIES Hope

Sunday night was a bad one, y’all.  

Despite our new Food Protocols, at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday night Mr. Happy found a piece of breakfast sausage on the dining room floor and put it in his mouth.

I immediately started swiping, while he gagged and coughed around my finger.  This made me think that, although I managed to get a pretty big piece of sausage out of his mouth, he had surely swallowed some.

Barely 15 minutes later, I realized the living room was eerily quiet.  Anyone with kids knows that a quiet child is a child that is almost certainly getting into trouble!  So, I went looking.

Mr. Charm was sitting on the couch, happily watching “Hoo Toob” (You Tube) videos on the Geek’s iPhone.

Mr. Happy was not in the room.

I couldn’t imagine where he was – the living room is completely gated off!  Suddenly I had a suspicion and went looking…yup.  There he was.  He had crawled into the dark-as-night office, the office that has a door that is supposed to remain closed at all times but somehow was left open, and was happily munching on a piece of paper when I snatched him up.

Again, I swiped hard, and got a HUGE lump of paper out of his mouth.  I thought I’d gotten it all, but since I didn’t know how big the paper was to start with, I really didn’t know.

While I’d like for everyone to believe that I handle all the challenges of my life with grace and poise, the truth is, I don’t try and hide all  my “less-than-finer” moments on here.  Any parent can probably relate, but parents of children with special needs – particularly food allergies – really need to know they aren’t alone when they have a moment like this.

And this moment?  Was absolutely devastating.

Mr. Happy still had blood in his diapers from LAST Monday’s dentist-office-sticker encounter.  And here he has ANOTHER exposure??  At home, even!  On our watch!!  Even with (usually) strict protocols in place!!

I became so depressed, dejected, and deflated that I quite honestly had a hard time physically holding my head erect to eat my dinner.

I didn’t even have the emotional strength to cry.

How’s that for wrung out?

If you asked the Geek, he’d probably tell you I barely spoke the rest of the night, and that I probably seemed mad to him.  I was.  And, I wasn’t.

I was mad, but mad takes effort and energy.  I didn’t have the effort or energy to give to mad.

So I sat there, dejected, feeling wrecked and wretched, hopeless and alone.

How on God’s green earth am I going to keep this child safe from paper and food?  So far, I haven’t seemed capable of doing so. I felt like we were failures as parents.

Mr. Happy fought going to bed that night; he woke up 4 times (that I can remember) throughout the night, and I was prepared for bright red blood in a poopy diaper yesterday morning.

Imagine my shock and joy when he DID have a poopy diaper first thing in the morning (not ‘normal’ for him, by the way) but it was a lovely mustard color (instead of green), didn’t have any mucous in it, and only a mild smell!  NO BLOOD.

I didn’t test it, because I was sure it was just a fluke and that throughout the day I’d see plenty of bloody diapers.

I didn’t.  

That was the only poopy diaper he had ALL DAY LONG.

So, apparently, Mommy finger swipes were effective, and he didn’t swallow anything at all.

Thank you, Jesus!

God as my witness, I will do ev-ery-thing in my power to make sure he WILL NOT have any other random exposures this week!  Our new dietician said to give him a week after his diapers return to normal after a reaction before trialing a new food.  I think we’re there, or nearly there.

And I want to trial him on his probiotics ASAP.

So our NEW new Food Protocols are to make the kitchen and dining room “No Crawl Zones” -whether food is being served or not!  He can crawl in the living room.  He can crawl in our bedrooms.  But no babies in the kitchen, and no food anywhere else.

We’re determined to get Mr. Happy a food trial, and we’re going to do it before the end of March.

So there, FPIES.  

Mama had a moment, but she’s back, ready to kick your Enterocolitis butt.  

This FPIES emotional roller coaster ride is FUN, isn’t it?  <snort, chortle, choke>