Peanut's Results

My Marlee Kay is allergic to peanuts, egg whites, and dog dander. Let's discuss these outcomes one by one shall we...

Peanuts. As we figured. The allergy is rated 1 to 5 with 5 being the most severe. Marlee is a 3.

Egg whites. Marlee is also rated a 3 for egg whites.

Dog dander came in at a 2.

Marlee's pedi wants to retest in 6 months. In regards to the rating scale, a person with an allergy rating of a 1 has a good chance of growing out of the allergy and a 5 is severe. So I guess time will tell.

In regards to the dog dander, the doctor does not seem too concerned. Neither of my dogs shed and it is the dander she is allergic to, not the actual dog. I too am allergic to dogs. Also, Marlee has shown no signs of being bothered by the dander.

Initially, one might think egg whites are not so bad, but think about it...pastas, baked breads, muffins, pancakes, waffles, cake, most types of pastries have egg in them. My poor peanut is going to have to bring her own special cupcake to birthday parties.

So, it could have been better news. It could also have been a lot worse. I was so worried the test was going to come back positive for dairy or wheat. Now that would have been awful. Hopefully we can get a handle on her eczema.

It is late and I am tired. My apologies if this post does not seem too articulate. The words just don't seem to be flowing out of me.

My lil' Peanut

Well, my poor little peanut is allergic to peanuts.





A little back story...
Last Wednesday (Oct 15) Marlee and I went over to her cousins house to play. The kids are playing while Lesley and I visit. I look over and see Marlee take a bite of Shenzie's cracker with peanut butter, which she had yet to be introduced to. Very little peanut butter I might add as Shenzie had scraped most of it off. I really thought nothing of it. Marlee is 15 months old and has never had a reaction to any type of food that we know of, nor do Dave or I.
Well..
Before I left Lesley's house, I noticed what looked like scratches on Marlee's chin. About two hours later I lifted her shirt and she was covered in hives. After completely freaking out I called her pediatrician. Her wonderful doctor told me the signs to watch for throughout the night and go straight to the emergency room if Marlee's tongue swelled up or if she had trouble breathing. After two doses of benadryl and a very worried Mommy who slept all of three hours, Marlee is fine.
However..
We had to take Marlee to get some blood work done for allergy testing. Due to her horrible eczema, her pediatrician thinks she might have other allergies.
So..
Thursday Dave and I took our daughter to get the blood work done. It was awful watching her get poked and poked and poked until the nurse finally found a vein. Marlee was quite the trooper though. Of course she screamed, but she calmed down the minute we picked her up. Brave girl!
The results should be in later this week. Dave and I are crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.
Figures, right?






PS-Photos courtesy of my sister Kristy. Thanks for taking all the great photos of Marlee this weekend!

Day after Day after Day

Marlee Kay climbing up and sitting on my office chair.

Well, Marlee finally figured it out. We knew in time this would happen as Marlee is nothing but fearless.
Here is a play-by-play of what went down Friday night:
I am in the office working and Dave is watching Marlee.
Before long I hear...
Dave: Marlee, where are you? Marlee??? Babe is she in there with you?
Me: Nope.
So, of course I start looking for Marlee and I just knew. Yep, she had crawled out Cooper and Mollie (my dogs) very little doggie door and was just standing outside wondering what all the fuss was about. This would be a first in her book of many firsts.
Okay, back to work for about another 30 minutes. When I emerge from the office Dave says to me...
Marlee is crazy! Not only did she crawl out the doggie door, she also climbed on the ottoman and stood up laughing (her new favorite thing). Then I took her outside on the patio and, once again, she was missing (don't worry people, our patio is gated). You know where she was? She had somehow gotten in between the back of the barbecue and the fence and was hanging on the fence.
My reply: Welcome to my day after day after day.......

Ahhhh...the life of a work at home Mama, and I wouldn't change it for a thing!

A big thanks to Madeline from Marlee for the pretty dress and the rest of the clothes! Marlee loves them.

On and On

Disclaimer: This is a somewhat political post.

Since this is ultimately a blog for Marlee, I find it fitting to acknowledge the trouble our country is in. Every morning as I feed Marlee and watch the news, I am horrified by what is going on in this country. From the housing market crisis, to all the bad loans that were lent by the banks, to the stock market crashing, to our government stepping in and bailing out banks, to the $700 billion bail out package that is in the works, to the never-ending war in Iraq, to the cost of food, to our dependence on foreign oil, to gas prices hovering at $4 a gallon, to shipping jobs overseas, to unemployment being on the rise, to our dollar being worth less and less, to our national debt, to social security running dry, to our ever-lacking education system, and on, and on, and on...
To hear economists talk, we are just three steps from a depression. Sometimes I feel as though this country is not moving forward, but rather backward.

In other news, is anyone else excited to watch the one and only VP debate tonight? I'm hoping to get a few good laughs out of it!

Let's just hope our next president can do a better job than our current president has done.