So.
Wed Jan 4, 2012 4:28:50 pm

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i had a fun ride in the ambulance last evening.

for some reason my brother and i have eczema, the inherited kind......but no one knows who we inherited it from......
we spent a good deal of time at the dermatologist as kids. we spent a good deal of time, itchy and cracked and well, for me, crying. not only because it hurt so bad that sometimes my brother and i had to crawl rather then walk, but also because kids are cruel and the term 'monster fingers' seemed appropriate enough for the condition.

my oldest daughter, Skylar, has it....

thank God not as bad as my brother or i.

her first showed it's self when she was 3 months old. she had a small patch of it on her cheek... it eventually went away. hers never got bad enough to where it was very noticeable, she was just always dry and wanted her back scratched a lot.

when she was almost 2 years old she got a very, very odd outbreak of red patches all over her body, she looked like a raccoon around her eyes, only red circle instead of black. i took her to her pediatrician who then referred her to a Dr. at Milwaukee Children's Hospitol.
there they did all kinds of blood work and skin scrapings and looked her over from head to toe and never could find out what the cause was. they gave her an ointment with steroids in it and sent us home.

when she was 4 years old her bio father and my moms boyfriend, Billy, had gone fishing and had caught a lot of fish and so we had a fish fry. about 15-20 minutes after we had eaten i was cleaning up and Skylar came up to me holding out her hands and saying 'itchy mama' and i looked at it and dismissed it as eczema and told her to put some of her "itchy medicine" on it. she came back to me crying and saying she was itchy and i told her to go sit down and let the medicine work.....the next thing i knew the "itchy"had turned into welts and her lips were swollen up and she was gagging and drooling and she couldnt swallow, she started to turn blue and by then, of course, we realized what was happening. at this point in time i was living in "the middle of no where" MS and it was just faster to haul of and take her then wait for an ambulance, the only thing was, the only vehicle we had was Billy's little red pick up truck.... her bio dad and Billy took of with her towards the hospital. the last thing i saw of Skylar was her swollen little colored face gasping for air.

i fell to my knees.

i got on the phone in HYSTERICS and called bio fathers dad and explained as best i could why he needed to come get me NOW!

the time it took for him to come and get me stands to this day as the darkest moment in my life. i was, well, there really is no way to explain the sickening fear that had taken a hold of me in that time, unless you have experienced something like that, you just don't know.

we got to the hospital and they had already given her shots and such to stop the reaction. they were monitoring her and i could breath. we stayed the night so they could keep an eye on her.

after i left the bio father and came to VA i finally got them insurance and her pediatrician referred her to an allergist at UVA. we went there and she was tested, on her back, for common allergies and fish. she was triggered a little by dust and pollen and such, but the 2 different fish, saltwater and fresh water, were very obvious. she was prescribed more ointment and an epi-pen.

to this day she has never gone into anaphylaxis again.

with all this in mind and how bad Colin's eczema is, i have been VERY cautious about introducing him to new foods. he is almost 7 months and has had little more then sweet potatoes. last evening i decided let's try bananas. he ate and i bathed him and as i was dressing him i noticed his lips were swelling and with no hesitation 911 was called.

he had an allergic reaction. not as severe as Skylar had, but still. he was given oral steroids for the first time and benedryl.
right before our eyes his eczema was disappearing.

i think until we get to the allergist, he'll be eating sweet potatoes.

he has an appointment at UVA already for the dermatologist on the 26th, im not sure if they can test him, but if anything they can refer him to get tested if the pedi doesnt before then.