Decluttering, Children, and Other Stuff Oh My: Updates Galore!

Gah!  It seems like life just slips past faster and faster anymore.  And, unfortunately for me, the blog just takes a back seat behind...well pretty much everything else in the universe sometimes.  But, bright side, I do have some really GOOD reasons for why I've been "out".

One experiment in changing diet:  Paleo Banana Bread Muffins.  They were good!

 First:  The Daughter Unit

Since my last update on Armina, we've gone through a lot.  I guess the last time I updated was me filling you in on our Valentine's Day visit to the ER which resulted in a bladder infection for her right?  Well, a week after she got off of the antibiotics, she started the nightly vomiting ritual again.  My nerves completely shot, I got her back into the internist super quick to try and figure out something, anything that might be causing it to happen.  What I got back was that it was probably a stomach bug she'd gotten and it would pass.  The ND, when I went to see her for an update, seemed to think that Armina was doing better and then when Armina vomited a couple of days later finally came to the conclusion that something at dinner time, maybe my husband fighting with Armina to get her to eat healthier, was upsetting her enough that her digestion was shutting down and rejecting food, so she gave us essential oils to diffuse at dinner time to help (and orders to stop fighting Armina on food, but to present the food over and over again and let her pick up the foods in her own time. This was a huge relief to me, but I still think it annoys my husband to no end sometimes).

The internist then sat down and researched Armina's entire case from November onward and we finally got a diagnosis of Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome.  It runs in families with chronic migraines (my husband suffers from them) and the child, while not inheriting the migraines, ends up with this condition instead.  So, basically, the internist gave us a script for Zophran (a strong anti-nausea drug) to give to Armina when she starts to feel the onset of symptoms to stop her from vomiting and an order to have a follow up appointment made for June.

Overall, so far, so good.  We've had a few stomach aches, but once the Zophran was given we didn't have any problems going back to sleep and being fine.  Although, honestly, I think the essential oils are helping her the most.  She's eating better overall and hasn't complained of the constant stomach ache she was having before, so I'm hoping we're finally seeing the end of this rain cloud.  Here's hoping anyway.  Wondering about what the image of the muffins is all about?  Well, read on and I'll get to that (promise)...

Second:  The Declutter Lenton Challenge

Funny part?  This thing has spread.  I mentioned this to my step-mom who jumped on the bandwagon and a couple of my friends did too.  Pretty funny!

My friend Shannon brought up a post on Facebook, randomly mind you, a while back of a challenge of "40 Bags in 40 Days" where you were supposed to aim at getting one bag of excess "stuff" for every day of lent and in the process declutter your life and find more Zen in minimalism.  I really liked the idea as a lot of areas of my home needed a LARGE overhaul (or in the least a deep cleaning), and so I've been slowly working on home stuff around here.  I got shelves put up in my laundry room and my laundry room reorganized, my pantry reorganized, my upstairs hallway closet became an appliance barn, gluten free zone for baking supplies and a place to store baking dishes...and things that pretty much impacted the entire house (including reorganizing every piece of furniture in the house pretty much).  And lots of other stuff.  In the process I've lost of a lot "stuff" that I just plain didn't need to clutter up my life.  I've slowed down over the past couple of weeks as my "zones" are becoming less and less, but I'm still working on it.  And I feel good about what I've accomplished.

No real photo for this one, but I love this image.

Third:  The Son Unit

We've been busy the last little bit with Alvah related matters too.  A chapter is coming to an end for him.  The end of preschool, which in his case has been three years long.  So, we have had to figure out where he was going to go AFTER preschool.  Which, we finally settled yesterday on him going into an ABA based program that the district was pushing for.  I was torn about it, until we realized what the alternative was (which wasn't really an alternative to how Alvah's personality works at all), so we checked out the program and knew that it was the place for Alvah to go.  We love his future teacher, have high hopes for what he's going to accomplish in the next couple of years and I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders knowing that others see Alvah's potential in the same way my husband and I do.  So, here's hoping it works out well!

In the middle of all of this going on, I've been trying to slowly switch my daughter to a gluten free diet and trying to think of different ideas to help get my son to start eating...you know...REAL food...without him turning on food like he did when the allergies hit and we had to switch everything on him.  I went nuts with a meal plan to make life more organized around here (I went out two months for dinner and am working on incorporating breakfast and lunch into that plan as well) and have been trying new recipes (unfortunately not many of my own creation...I've been too tired with everything going on to try much out in that department).  

And so, there is a brief (and yes, this was brief with everything that has happened, trust me) synopsis of what has been going on around here.  I  hope life has been treating you well and YES I will post up more than just, "Hey this is what I've been up to" types of post very soon!

It's Dead Jim: The Loss of an Allergy (and All It Entails)

 As people on Facebook were first to find out (sorry) last Wednesday was our yearly follow up with the allergist.   I'd been looking forward to the appointment for weeks, sick I know, because I was excited to find out how my son was doing.  You see, for the last six months Alvah's skin had been clear; beautifully, wonderfully so.  And so I was hoping that maybe, JUST MAYBE, Alvah would have lost at least one of his mega bady food allergies (as in the life threatening ones);  peanuts or garlic.

Well, the allergist was willing to do the prick test for the peanuts and garlic after seeing his clear skin.  The peanut allergy was scary as all get out to watch welt up on his back and watching the allergist standing by with an epi-pen ready just in case, especially after him being peanut free for a year.  Sort of made my husband and I sick to see it.  But the dot for the garlic didn't welt.  At all.  It was actually darned near impossible to tell where the garlic dot had BEEN once the 20 minute wait was up.

The allergist studied the negative reaction on the test and the fact that we'd, in desperation to my son's continued quest to purposefully lose weight (or so it seemed to us), introduced some processed garlic back into Alvah's diet without any type of bad reaction and came to a decision. Alvah is now approved to eat garlic again.  Raw, processed, the whole kit n kaboodle.

I kept expecting to feel this thrilled feeling at the thought that we'd gained the garlic back, and I tried to feel excited...I really did.  And don't get me wrong.  I am through the roof elated that I can once again buy garlic cloves and have them in my kitchen without worry and that I can actually EAT garlic again without worrying about hurting my son through second hand exposure.  That I can buy some cheaper options at the store when it comes to tomato products and such.  That, instead of having to buy two different types of ketchup for the kids that now I can just worry about getting Heinz organic ketchup for my daughter's corn allergy.

Yet, the idea of feeding my son actual raw garlic, cooked or otherwise out and out terrifies me.  I have battled the eczema battle for so long that a part of me is actually mourning the loss of the garlic allergy.  Why?  Because that means Alvah CAN eat garlic again.  And that means that the garlic allergy might come back.

I mean look at that skin.  Would you want to mess with skin this clear?  Yeah, I didn't think so.   This time last year my son's hand would be a mass of cracked and bleeding skin with little clear skin to be had (his hands always got the eczema the worst).  His nails didn't grow right because his hands were always so cracked from the eczema and he held his hands in a semi-curled position, which his OT at the time had compared to someone who had suffered a stroke and was in constant pain from it.  I had to slather skin cream on him constantly just to keep his joints from bleeding whenever he'd have to use his hands for anything and he had to wear gloves at school because of the blood exposure to other students.  Yes, it was that bad.

But, Alvah can have garlic again.  The prick test proves it.  Shouldn't I be happy instead of feeling paranoid?

I'm still baffled that I feel this way.  I mean I have worked really hard the last year and a half to keep garlic and other allergens out of this house.  To make sure my child was safe from the allergies that could make his skin crack.  And kept hoping that if I did a good enough job that maybe he'd be able to regain some of the foods he'd lost and be able to enjoy them again.  And yet now that the garlic allergy is gone I'm scared of reintroducing Alvah to foods he used to love with garlic in them.  Roasted garlic mashed potatoes.  Chili, the way he liked it.  Tunafish and crackers with seasoned mayonnaise.  The list goes on.

When you realize you have food allergies to battle it changes your life dramatically.  People often ask me what it's like to suddenly have your child diagnosed with a type A categorized food allergy or other life threatening food allergy (which peanut was type A for us and garlic was in the potentially life threatening category too, although not epi-pen severe).  I liken having your child diagnosed with any food allergy to getting hit in the face hard with a board.  It's shocking.  It hurts and it really throws you through a loop.  But, you recover, pick yourself up off the ground and start to work on healing and getting on with life.

And then, it seems, when you lose a food allergy, it's like getting hit in the face with a different type of board.  It's shocking.  It's exciting.  It's worrisome.  And it's just as big of a change as getting the allergy in the first place.  Ever tried to think, in reverse, of what foods have garlic in them?  Yeah, I'm still trying to figure it all out.  I had the breakthrough this morning that I could actually buy nitrate free sausage and it would be safe for all of us to eat now.  Yet, the idea of making prepared sausage is so alien to me at the moment that it's almost like learning to cook all over again.  It's somewhat overwhelming.

I have read a lot of articles throughout the years that it is possible to mourn the loss of a food, such as Celiacs when they find out they have to give up gluten for good.  I know that it's true as I have mourned the loss of more than one food on the allergy roller coaster.  Yet, is it possible to actually mourn the loss of an allergy once it's gone?  I'm starting to wonder.