Bring on the CORN & other medical mysteries

Have I mentioned before that I just LOVE our pediatrician???!! We visit her frequently at the beginning of the year with 4 kids' well-checks.

Brooklyn and Blake had their 7 year well check last Monday (the 8th). I made sure to ask her if we could get Blake retested for his corn allergy. The blood draw was not fun or easy. I took all four kids by myself (what was I thinking??) and I had to both threaten AND bribe Blake in order for him to comply. In the end, he STILL had to sit on my lap while I helped hold him down plus another tech holding his arm straight then the lady actually drawing his blood. There was more production leading up to it than the actual event itself. Blake was like, "Oh, that was it?" Haha. Alas, he got his ice cream cone and the Bakugans remained out of time out. (rest of story intermingled with Preston's below....)

Morning of the 11th, Preston had had his breakfast already, but of course when it's my turn to sit down and actually eat in peace, he comes a'moochin'! I gave him a few bites of egg and he went on his merry way. When I went to change him out of his pajamas, I immediately noticed that he had hives on his torso, armpit, upper legs and diaper area. Obviously he was having an allergic reaction to SOMEthing. We hadn't changed laundry soaps, bath soap, lotion, diaper or wipe brands, no new clothes, nothing. I didn't really worry about it because he wasn't exhibiting any other weird symptoms. Friday morning, before I even changed him, I noticed that there were hives on his neck so I knew it wouldn't be good when I open his jammies. Yep, WAY worse!! I called the pediatrician's office to get an appointment since it was a long holiday weekend, hoping they wouldn't just say it was an allergic reaction and send me on my way. Nothing peeves me more than wasting $$ and time having the doc tell me what I already knew and not give me something to fix the problem.

So we trekked on over and waited, waited, waited for the doctor (not our normal pediatrician) to come see us. A knock on the door and our regular ped pops her head in the door and said she just got Blake's lab results back and saw we were in the office so she brought them by. Great news ---- he's OUTGROWN his CORN allergy!!!!! She also {obviously} notices that Preston is having some hives issues, quickly quizzes me on anything new, I mention the eggs and she said to keep him off them until 18 months, the other doctor will advise more.

We wait and wait and wait some more and finally a doc stops in to see Preston. Yep, it's definitely an allergic reaction to something. Or it could be a virus or strep. She checks him over and he sounds good, so she just gave me dosing instructions for Zyrtec and Benadryl and sent us home. $61 later........ plus another $18 for said medicines....... I knew it. Preston is mucho mucho better now, with just a few light hives lingering. I'm tempted to try eggs again this week to see if he'll have a similar reaction so I can know for sure. We'll see. I don't really want to put him through that again.
Back to Blake. Middle of the night Sunday to Monday, I was nursing the baby at 3:30am and I hear a toilet lid slam open in the direction of the boys' room. That's really unusual for any of my kids to be up using the potty in the middle of the night. I put Prest back to bed, peek in the boys' room and whisper, "Blake are you awake?" and he said, "I had to go poop." Ok, again, weird, and I go back to bed. Just as I start to drift off, I hear "THE COUGH." I rip off my covers, sprint down the hallway to find Blake, standing at the toilet, barfing. This kid gets super panicky whilst tossing his cookies, so I rubbed his back, assured him it was ok and to get it all out. I was just uttering a silent prayer of thanks that he made it to the bathroom in time!! He rinsed out his mouth, I tucked him back in bed, asked him if he was alright and he nodded yes. Then he says, "You're the best, mom." Sweetest thing I've EVER heard at 3:45 in the morning!!!!!! Blake proceeded to lay around all day yesterday and even took a lengthy (2hour) AM nap. He picked at his lunch, but gobbled up his dinner and even had seconds. It could have been corn-overload on his system, the bad headache he claimed to have, or leftover sick germs from an uncle. Who knows, but he seems to be back to normal today. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that THAT was IT and no one else gets those germs!