Allergies.

Since the end of March Owen has been struggling with what we thought was just seasonal allergies. Runny eyes, nasal congestion, nasty chest coughing, mild fevers and in general grumpiness caused by feeling like crap. Come on, we all know how it feels with allergies, it just plain stinks. He didn't really want to eat much, wanted to be held, clung to his blankie and thumb most of the time. So we tried benadryl. Kind of worked, took a little edge off of it.

At his 18 month check up I asked our pediatrician about it. He suggested we try 24 hour children's Zyrtec. So we did, I felt like it worked for a little while and then didn't help at all. In the mean time, we switched both boys to soy milk thinking that their (mostly Carters) dark purple circles under his eyes were related to cows milk. Two weeks ago Owen got worse. He was miserable. More congested, more coughing, more runny eyes, more just feeling bad. But then most of Houston was suffering with the same sort of thing. Finally, last weekend it was enough. I called the doctor and the soonest I could get him in was Tuesday. Fine, I'll take it.

Tuesday he wakes up and cries, screams, clings and whimpers all morning. Something is up, this is not like him at all. We make it to the doctor, still crying. Back in the room, more crying. I look down to wipe his nose and tears and notice his ear beginning to drain. Perfect, an ear infection. Poor guy. Doctor comes in, still crying with a draining ear and looks like the other ear is about to drain as well. Two ear infections, grateful for ear tubes. Checks his breathing, crying, ear and add wheezing to the mix.

Next step, breathing treatment to open his airways, now screaming. Here I am holding my kicking, screaming, crying toddler while trying to keep the breathing mask on him. He cries so hard his eyelids start to turn a nice purple tint and then he falls asleep. His little body gave up and couldn't take it anymore. And then, I cry. Because I have never seen Owen like this.

Doctor comes back. Airways sound better, gives me a handful of prescriptions and sends the lab tech in to draw blood for an allergy test. Owen is awake again and crying. Over an hour later and we leave the office with an order to follow up with the allergist. They must have been thrilled to see us go, he cried and it filled the entire office! The nurse told me. He stops crying as we walk out the door, until we get to the car. Continues to cry while we fill prescriptions at the pharmacy. Then promptly passes out in in the car and for the rest of the afternoon.

Things start to get better, somewhat. My expectations of "better" are a little warped, anything was better than Tuesday. Thursday afternoon we headed off to the allergist. Two hours, one matchbox car sacrifice to the office humidifier, an allergy skin test on his back and two doctor consultations later, turns out our little man has more then just "seasonal" allergies.

Peanuts, Eggs, Soy- the three food allergies we NEVER expected. Along with a few grasses, trees and cats. Now add to the mix, Singular and nasal spray, to the inhaler and ear drops. And the order to avoid peanuts, eggs and soy. Follow up in two weeks with the allergist.

I went home and researched. They could have been false positives, surely he can't have real food allergies, right?

Pediatrician calls Friday afternoon with the allergy blood test results. Peanut and egg white both appear in the blood test, but soy doesn't. So maybe it's only the two and not three. Soy is in EVERYTHING! I hope and pray soy is not really an allergy for him. The other two showed up as "low." Recommendation, lay off for two weeks and go back.

So we are moving on. Checking nutritional labels. Watching him closely. Giving him ALL of the prescriptions. Right now, both ears are still draining gunk. His cough has subsided and his nose continues to run.

With all of this written and the week we've had, I am even more determined to get to the bottom of this. How do I really feel? I despise allergies and love Owen.