Sick Kids

Last week Jaxon aka Chomper had eczema covering 40% of his body. It was so babd it began weeping under his neck. he was so itchy you could hear him over the moniter moving around his cot. So thursday, I took to the DRs and got some egocort cream 1% on prescription. It's an ointment rather than a cream. I got say it's the best one I've used yet and I've used few!!! Anyway he has that on 2x daily on affected area plus we are using Derm Veen products. Sticking to one brand of eczema stuff has made a huge difference (before I used a few different products) So to date we are using the soap wash, the eczema cream recommend by the allergist once a day, Derma Veens new product eczema ointment once a day and his eczema has cleared up, well the worst of it. He still as patches. The DR said he has atopic eczema and that something in diet was making it flair, which just happens to be banana! He was eating in the farex fruity museli, which explains why my fingers kept getting red, itchy spots on them. So puppies got rest of the box and we are now checking to make sure he doesn't consume any more banana.

We are also watching him for signs of allergies and his lungs are being checked for asthma or any signs of wheezing every time he sees a DR (due to having croup x2 in a week 1/2 2 weeks of the first attack)

We have been given a croup plan for our kids as well, which clears up all the confusion on the croup issue. Basically because we have a family history of asthma, we can't steam our kids as it can trigger an asthma attack. This happen to Nikki, we steamed her and 1/2hr later we had to rush her up to the ED because she had an asthma attack. It was scary! So if you have a family history of asthma in your family and your children get croup, the current Dr's treatment is warm dry air and pred mix (predsolyne) to avoid asthmatic complications.

Anyway, I'll keep you all update on our lastest allergy but we are hoping Jaxon aka Chomper will grow out of it. i really don't want another sick kid specially when his older brother has behaviourial issues.

Cheers Raven

I know i was ment to do this blog last week but other things came up.

Well, Josh had his allergy testing done and i must say he was one brave boy and was very well behaved on the day. The appointment fell on a Thursday which is childcare day for Josh and Amy so i took Amy in for the day and made it a very special day for Josh and mummy.

We went and had the allergy testing which happend to be the prick test which ment that the nurse wrote about 12 letters on his arm then put a different liquid next to the letters then got this little needle thing and made a small dot into each liquid mix. Within about a minute he had a reaction to egg white, egg yolk and peanuts. Everything else was fine which was other nuts, dust mites and grass. This all comes as no suprise to us but after about 1/2 an hour the reaction started going down without the aid of a antihystimine which now means the egg and nuts isn't the cause of the hives. The good thing is he can still have cake and stuff that has eggs but means he can't have a whole egg or Meringues but no peanuts. The bad thing is we are back to see the allergist for another round of testing this time testing plants and the likes. It is a very expensive process but when it is the kids and their health money means nothing.

After the testing i took him to Mc Donalds for a happy meal and he was so proud of the fact that he had writing on his arm that he decided to show anyone that was standing there long enough to look. He wouldn't even put a jumper on because he thought that it would rub the writing off. We came home and watched a few DVD and had some beautiful cuddles on the couch.

At least i know he will be fine for the next round of testing. Again, i will let you all know how he goes.

Love Juzzy xoxoxo

We took Jedd's feeding tube out for good about 1.5 months ago.

He still has a long long way to go as far as eating like a normal almost 3 year old. But this is FANTASTIC news!!!! He healed all the way to closing within 24 hours. the next day we took him swimming in a cholrinated pool with NO issue at all.

I updated his CB site with the rest. Just wanted to let you all know. The link to his CB site is on my Homepage.

We are still working with Early Intervention on getting him to accept more textures and a greaer variety of foods. But we've come a long way baby!!!!

We did get some not so good news the other day though....it looks as if we will be headed to the O.R. sometime in Sept. We don't have a date yet though.

It appears that his hypospadias repair has failed yet again. For all those counting, this will be repair number 3 on his malformed urethra...in what was supposed to be a one time fix. UGH UGH UGH UGH!!!!

We are sooo not looking foward to getting sedated and all that agian but we'll get through it. I never thought we would have to be waiting in THAT waiting room again but here we go.

I'll add some pictures to t his thread of Jedd's tube free belly in just a second.

Well, the meeting with the principle went well and we have made arrangements to keep her safer. Her epipen will now be in the school yard with her and next term (as school holidays start on friday) the principle will begin intensive education on anaphylaxia within the school community, hopefully by the end of year, the school will be peanut free. Althought it will be voluntary except for my Angels class which will be compulsory.

They are looking at having the Allergist nurse come and educate the school, as well as her class learning about the her allergy and presenting it to the school at assembly. It means a few changes for Nikki but she is well worth it. Hopefully I will have printer soon and will be able to print out and write up worksheets for the school and students to help them become educated. So if anyone has or knows where to access educational material for anaphylaxia it would be of great help.

Thank you all again for your support and I will continue to keep you all updated with the process.

Cheers Raven!

On the subject of updates I wrote a letter formally requesting my Angels school become peanut free. I have an appointment with the principle, so I hope to see a result from this. It feels like they don't want to deal with it. If I don't get any results from this I can go to the board of the school as I know many of the members who sit on it. Hopefully it won't go that far.

Also I'm getting some serious help for Lachlans behavioural issues. Last week he hurt, chomper not badly but enough to leave a small abrasion on his lower eyebrow. He's seeing a specialist once the referrals been sent. I have to make an appointment on Friday. They are looking at everything from his pregnancy, delivery and diet to find out whats going on. It's relief to finally have some help and some real stragedy to curb his obessive behaviour.

Cheers Raven

After Josh getting hives a few too many times close together we finally worked out it may be egg or egg white. I took him to the doctors last week as i was sure it was the egg. She seemed to agree so now we are booked in for allergie testing on the 12th of August. I know it's a while to wait but we just have to keep him away from egg until that time. I will let you all know how he goes.

Juzzy

As most of you are aware my son Josh has food allergies. Yesterday as a treat i got him a sausage roll for lunch and a biscuit from our local bakery. About 1/2 an hour after lunch i noticed that Josh was scratching ALOT. I asked him what the problem was and he came over to me and showed me his leg. The poor thing was covered in hives. Legs, bum, stomach and he had one on his face that was just coming up. At this stage he said his arms were itchy as well. So straight off to the chemist as we didn't have any antihistamines in the house. I showed the chemist and he agreed that they were hives so we got some phenergan and because the chemist was next to the bakery i went in there to get an ingredients list so i can take it to his doctor next time we are there. I explained to the bakery shop assistant that i needed the list because my son had reacted to something he had eaten and straight away she was no help. She kept saying that the products are all fresh and that the shop is cleaned daily and my son didn't have a reaction because of something he had eaten from there. I quite calmly explained that it was an allergic reaction not food poisioning and i wasn't suggesting that the shop was dirty, i just needed the list so we can pin point the food so we don't feed him that again and risk further and more dangerous reactions next time. Still this lady was no help. English is not this ladies first language so i think it may not have helped but i did explain it in simple english until the shop assistant just walked off and went to serve other customers. Conversation over.

I know here in Victoria it is law to have an ingredients list on hand for people to look at. I worked for the Cheesecake shop for 10 years before having kids and the law came in then so it is something every food outlet has to have. My question is Does anyone know where i can complain about this or how i go about forcing them to realise why i need to see the list? I know my son only got hives but next time it could be more serious. I don't want to get these people into trouble but i need them to realise that they need this for the benefit of their business. I will not be going back there for anything until i can see this list.

Hope someone can help.

Juzzy xoxoxo

Answer: 3!!

Charlotte obvioulsy isn't coping with her trial without her asthma preventers.  This morning I had her at the PED for the 3rd time in as many weeks for wheeze, cough, increased work of breath............

now on her 3rd course of prednisolone and back on preventers as of today.  luckily we didn't have to stay. but the doctor said if we had come through the night (I was managing her on 2-4 hourly ventolin) that she would have been admitted.  Here's hoping the pred does the trick today, because if her night tonight is like the last few nights, they want her back in.

On top of that, her 2nd recent PED visit was for a crazy rash. After childcare last tuesday she had patches of red on her armpits and feet- she said her top and shoes were rubbing, fair enough, didn't think any more of it.  Until she started coughing later that night, went in to do the ventolin thing and decided to put some vicks on her chest.  the rash had spread to her belly. called the health hotline for advice (yes, even nurses need advice on these things) and the guy said it could be a staph infection and get her into the hospital straight away.  she had massive patches of it looking like sunburn by the time we got there- on her back, arms, legs, inner thighs, belly, neck and face.  her asthma flared up at the same time.

turns out it was an allergy to something.  god knows what.  30min after zyrtec and 3x20 min puffers and she was good to go.  now we may have to travel down the allergy elimination route with her as well.  given that she had respiratory invlovement this time, next time she might have full on anaphylaxis- AND I DONT KNOW WHAT I'M SUPPOSED TO BE PROTECTING HER FROM.  I have a bottle of zyrtec just in case, and what the hell, I know CPR.  not that I want to do that on my own daughter (came close to it last year when she had a hypoxic, apnoeic seizure- that was enough).

shes fine at the moment though. currently fighting with her brother.  I am trying to ignore it, ha ha ha.

I've been researching companies manufacturing and cleaning policies. I got a call from Kraft who's suppliers aren't very clean when it comes to nuts. So take their allergen information seriously.

I'm trying to find ways of saying yes more to her as some companies place the warning on their packaging for liability reasons, even if they clean equipment properly. It'd be great if they manufactured nut products on separate equipment. It would make her life so much better. I think it's cheap and nasty that they don't but that's my opinion.

With the change in the weather comes the acute exacerbation of asthma episodes that i know only too well through work.  I knew it was only a matter of time before Charlotte had her turn- its the first time going into winter that she has been trialled off her preventers and i wasn't expecting it to run smoothly.

Yesterday she started coughing non stop, last night she started wheezing (I could hear her wheeze from the door to her room) and I had her on 1/2 hourly ventolin.  Despite the cough and wheeze she wasn't working much harder than usual to breathe and seemed to be coping.  I had the stethescope out and was assessing her frequently.  No tracheal tug, no recession and no increased resp rate.  But when she woke up at 9:30 pm distressed and refusing her puffers (usually she takes them well) i knew it was close to hospital time.  A couple more 1/2 hourly's while I contemplated my next move and packed some hospital stuff just in case, then I made the decision.  Called in sick for this morning and took Charlotte to PED at 11pm.  The nurse at triage said to me "you don't think you should have brought her in sooner" (well no- because I know how to assess her after many years in paediatric myself and i'm not stupid- not that I told her that!!!!! I know most of the staf working there but didnt know her) By the time the Dr saw her after 1am, her chest was clear and she had stopped coughing (up yours nasty nurse questioning my assessment!!).  I was still giving her ventolin in the waiting room.  Seems all the ventolin I had given her had done the trick.  We got to go home with some prednisolone and told to come back if she gets worse- the usual yada yada!  By this time she was hyped up on her puffs as well, yay for the side effects of ventolin in the middle of the night.

So when we got home at 2am, Imogen must have heard us because she woke.  Settled Charlotte, settled Imogen and eventually got to bed.  Only to have to get up to Lachlan an hour later and then the usual early feed for Imogen at 5:30.

I had a nice day at home with Charlotte any way.  its nice to have one on one time and its so much less stressful with only one child in the house, as opposed to 3. (the other 2 went to childcare as planned, since i was supposed to be at work).

So, that would have to be the 3rd (you know, bad things run in 3s)- dog died, marriage failure and asthma episode (well i hope that can be counted as a third, because i really need a break now! LOL).  Now where was that break and rest I was waiting for !