Seriously?!?!?

So we're having a bit of a rough start to 2013. Where shall I begin? :)

New Year's Eve. My sweet little 2 1/2 year-old boy woke up early and irritable. Began complaining of groin pain and continued to complain about every 10 minutes, all day. The area he would complain about varied from time-to-time.... would kind of stop him in his tracks for a few seconds and he would grab at himself down there, or behind, and sometimes his lower tummy area. Eventually I called the doctor, as it wasn't letting up and I could see no evidence of irritation or swelling, etc. She wanted us to go to Children's Hospital ER to have him evaluated for testicular torsion, hernia, UTI, and the like. He and my husband were there from 5-10 p.m. They ruled out the super-serious stuff mentioned above, thank goodness. The next morning, New Year's Day, he awoke with a new cold (he is just getting over a 4-week one!!) and seemed a little warm. Still complaining about the same pain.

January 2- he awoke with crusted eyelids on top of everything else. Follow-up with the pediatrician doesn't reveal what is causing him discomfort, and they ruled out a UTI. She sees an ear infection in one ear and fluid in the other, and takes a look at the eye infection and thinks it's probably viral.

So while we were at the doctor's office, my dad was watching Olivia, and he brought her cousin over to play. Around the time they were getting ready to leave, I noticed a red, swollen mark on Olivia's cheek. Asked what happened... she didn't know. About 10 minutes later, I notice a cluster of what I think are some sort of bites on her cheek, and they are itching her. I notice another area on her jaw below there. Within another 10-15 minutes this same pattern appears on her other cheek. I then see her itching her arm- a big cluster there, too. I begin to realize these are hives and all of a sudden it dawns on me that she is having an allergic reaction... and immediately I remember my dad mentioning she tried a cashew with snack. One cashew. I can't remember her ever having a cashew before, and the only tree nut I know she's had is almond with no problems. She has also had peanut butter and peanuts with no problems. The hives continue to move and spread around her body, and I monitored her closely for any facial swelling or breathing problems. My husband was on his way home and picked up some Benadryl, which within an hour of giving her a dose, the hives were gone.

So my sweet girl who HATES being GFCF and dealing with all of that food-avoidance now has a potentially life-threatening allergy to cashews (probably also pistachios from what I'm reading). Obviously taking her to the allergist to confirm, but it is pretty apparent what happened. This puts a whole other level of pressure on the food-avoidance issue, for obvious reasons. I just feel so, so bad for her, and now am really scared about it. Before... gluten and dairy... I do everything in my power to make sure she doesn't consume one bite of these things, but things happen. And she doesn't get physically ill and we deal with it. Now... well, this is a whole different story. I am reading that subsequent reactions are typically worse, and that she will most likely always need to have an Epi-Pen and Benadryl with her... which could get interesting for a 5 year-old with impulse-control problems. But... we'll figure all of that out.

So that was yesterday.

Today my sweet boy wakes up with two eyes completely swollen shut, FULL of fluid all around the eyelid and the whole orbital area, not to mention completely crusted over with yellow discharge. It looks so, so terrible. Thankfully the Omnicef he was prescribed should cover the eye infection... but if it's viral like the pediatrician believes it may be, it's just going to need to run its course. And it's very contagious. So this should be fun.

Happy freakin' New Year.

I have to laugh... seriously. We're falling apart here!!! You know that saying about the month of March... if it comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb... or something like that? Well, let's hope the same goes for the start to a new year!!!!

Still counting my blessings as we begin this new year... just a crazy, crazy start, in typical fashion for us! :)