One Year

Today is the one year mark since FPIES entered our lives. I remember every single detail of the evening like it was yesterday. It's a horrible nightmare that replays in my head each time I think of trying a new food.

We were getting ready to go up to the Fire Hall to work Turkey Bingo that night, after just getting home from a few day convention. Because of an eczema outbreak the first time we tried rice cereal, we decided to give it a rest while we were gone. We sat down to feed Kara her rice cereal dinner and were on our way.

Things were going well, I was visiting with people I hadn't seen in a while, Brenna was helping Daddy with Bingo and I was holding Kara. I ran into a friend who hadn't seen Kara in a while. We were talking and I mentioned that she suddenly didn't look too good. That' when the vomiting started - at first it was like she spit up but it just kept coming out, like there was no end to it. I brought her to the office where we changed her clothes and I took my sweatshirt off. She wasn't quite with it. We no sooner got her cleaned up and the vomiting started again. I remember mentioning how she'd been fine, up until a few minutes before that first vomiting reaction started. I asked one of the wives what she thought, because I knew something was wrong! I remember her saying "Go with your gut, Kendall. She doesn't look good and if you don't think she's ok, bring her to the hospital." Thanks, Kim, I will forever remember your support on that horrible evening. I'm sure we'll be talking about it tonight, as we are up at Bingo, remembering last year's events.

The vomiting started one more time, as someone ran to get Brian from the Bingo floor. I was terrified to put Kara in the car seat, but somehow we did, and headed up to the ER which was only a few blocks away. While we were being triaged and before the doctor got in there, these episodes happened a few more times, finally getting to the point of her having nothing left in her stomach to throw up. I remember the doctor checking her out and her finally looking up at us, smiling. He discharged us saying she must just have some sort of a bug, keep a close eye on her and don't give her the cereal for two weeks or so.

A year later we have come so far in finding a diagnosis for you, Kara Lynne, yet some days I feel we have so far to go yet. You've got a pretty good menu going, along with chubby cheeks, a buddah belly and a good set of thighs, but that's because you LOVE your ba-ba. The more of a menu we seem to get for you, the more difficult things tend to get. Your doctor told me that you are thriving because of my strict adherence to you diet and that's something that I need to remind myself of every day. It's so hard for me to say no to you as your sister is eating a tootsie roll from the bank, to be in the park seeing another baby getting a bite of their Mommy's ice cream cone, or to be out for dinner watching a baby nibble on a french fry. It often brings tears to my eyes because to eat, something that should be so simple, is so difficult for you.

We're taking baby steps and making progress, although slow. This weeks starts a series of appointments. I'm so sorry we have to go through all of this but I'm going to try my best to be able to open these windows a little bit wider for you.

I love you, Baby Girl!