Updates on Creed and Kady

Well - we talked with Creed's allergist at Children's Hospital today. And unfortunately, our battle with his food allergies is FAR from over. We were VERY hopeful that today's phone call would bear better news than it did. The doctor had told us that if Creed's "allergy number" was below 2 we would do a food challenge the next time we visited. We were not too hopeful for his numbers to be below 2 because that would mean Creed's egg allergy would have to decrease by 4 points. That is quite a lot. But - we could still hope. Well - the phone call today revealed the reality of the situation. Creed's peanut and egg allergy numbers have both increased. His egg allergy number last year was 5.45. This year it is 6.09. His peanut allergy last year was 0.37. His peanut allergy this year was a whooping 7.21. (And no, that is not a typo) So now Creed's peanut allergy is even worse than his egg allergy. To us, that is not great news.
If you don't have to deal with the allergy situation with your child, you don't understand the "detours" it can cause. Let me explain a few. If we want to go out to eat, we first have to look on the Internet and check the ingredients to see what food Creed can have at any restaurant we are going to. If the restaurant cooks things in peanut oil, we have to know. If we take him to someone else's house - we basically have to tell them what to feed him and sometimes just end up taking our own meal for him. We can NEVER go out to breakfast with Creed because if he comes in contact with the egg on the table, he can react. We have to carry his epi-pens with us 24/7 and have had to go to church at midnight to recover them a few times on a Sunday night. When we go to a family dinner, we are on pins and needles all night wondering where Creed is and if anyone that has had a hard-boiled egg or peanut butter will touch him or kiss him or if he will "snag" something off the table he should not have. If we go to someone's birthday party, Creed cannot have the cake, so we always make sure to have a "egg and peanut free" cookie in the bag that he can have. At first - this was not a big issue, Creed really didn't care what he had as long as he was getting some kind of dessert. But as he is getting older, the issue is becoming more of an issue. He WANTS the cake, he WANTS the cookies, and although he knows they can make him "sick", he'd rather have the cookie! I don't blame him! How many times do we look at that piece of chocolate cake knowing full well we don't need it, but we really WANT it?? No, it may not make us stop breathing - but it could add a few pounds to those hips!!:)
Anyway - enough complaining. I need to be grateful that my son has food allergies and that is all. There could be SO many other things that are much more life changing and life altering that he could be facing. I should be happy that he is a healthy little boy that can run around and play and live life to it's fullest even without eggs and nuts!
I promised a few blogs ago that I would keep you updated on Kady's situation if anything changed. Well - at this point, nothing really has changed. The doctor never called with any more abnormal test results - which is a good thing. We still do not know what the growth is on her arm, but we are hopeful that the next round of blood tests will also show that things are in the "normal" range. So - at this point, we are just praying that the answers will come when it is time and that in the mean time God will give this mommy peace!