Kara was diagnosed with food protein induced enterocolitis syndrome (FPIES) in August of 2010. She has had many FPIES reactions and complications that have lead to numerous hospitalizations and specialist appointments. It was a huge sigh of relief to finally have some answers and a diagnosis, however we have to remind ourselves daily that this is a very serious disease and this is only the beginning of the long road we have in front of us.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Allergies and Asthma

Kara's eczema has been completely out of control. Despite the measures we've taken since our last allergy appointment in mid-September it hasn't gotten much better. With this we've seen even more of an increase in the sneezing, stuffy nose, and icky, croupy cough.

It was a beautiful fall day yesterday and we spent the late afternoon and evening outside. Brenna just learned how to ride her bike without training wheels and Kara has mastered pedaling on her trike. The girls rode in circles around the driveway. I noticed Kara getting puffier and puffier. We came in for baths and the eczema around her eyes was bright pink again. Her wrists looked like they had welts on them. I put her in the bath quick and did her full skin regime afterwards. I wanted to cry looking at the random patches all over her legs and arms. Kara did a good job covering her entire face in vaseline (!) helping Mamma while I applied her meds everywhere else. We wrapped her ankles, put jammies on and her itchy was making her crazy. Another dose of Benedryl was given - we should really buy stock in this stuff! Not too long after this, the wheezing started. She was scaring me! I'm so tired of having night after night wondering if we are going to end up in the ER! I swear it's every other day lately! We started up the nebulizer and Kara took that and fell asleep in my lap.

It's been one thing after another. These symptoms clear a lot of things up for us as far as what all was food related. Since she has always had these symptoms, we didn't know if it was food driven or not. Given the fact that she is on no food right now and hasn't been for almost four weeks now, it's clear that this is all related to something else - something in the environment that we haven't been able to figure out yet, despite the skin prick testing. Who knows if we'll ever figure it out. For now, Benedryl and Zyrtec are our friends. :)

No comments:

Post a Comment