Back home from the allergist

Today we took Elliot to the allergist. Let me first say...I love this place! What a great doctor's office (GR allergy)!! We first met with the doctor and went over his history thus far...I don't know how I'm keeping all his medications straight anymore....maybe that's why I forget everything else!! There's no more room in my brain! Anyway...they went ahead and did an allergy skin test and he didn't react to anything. This really surprised the doctor. He did maybe have a reaction to dogs...but it was not even measurable. So the doctor looked at me and said..."Okay I know you're frustrated because we know something is causing him to be sick, and I'm pretty sure he's allergic to something..I just don't know what it is!" This is part of the reason they wanted to wait till he's older to do this..because(from my understanding) is that the body won't show a reaction to things until you're older and have been exposed more. So if we do the same test again at age 4 it will more likely tell us what he's allergic too. Hmmm...reminds me of me getting allergies at age 30! Go figure! So sometimes you're allergic they just can't tell you what to avoid. They did diagnose him with asthma for sure. She said with his eczema as bad as it is, and the wheezing getting worse now with every cold, and he seems to be responding well to the Pulmicort (inhaled steroid) all these indicate some level of asthma. So they are keeping him on the Pulmicort indefinitely and we got some new tips on how to treat his eczema better. So overall the kid was a trooper! I tell you...he puts up with so much! So the visit was very informative in a lot of ways..I just wish we knew what was making him react so we could avoid it...but most likely he'll end up on allergy shots down the road. At least the doctors are agreeing and working towards a solution. Its just going to take time. They did also mention when he turns two we can get him a different vaccine that helps prevent 7 more somethings (those big words didn't fit in my brain today!:))....some of the things it prevents is one of the things they found in his adenoid when that was removed. Towards the end of the visit Elliot was really done with being there and I still had a bunch of questions...so the doctor went out to find a nurse, got an inflatable ball and the nurse played catch with Elliot while we talked. Isn't that fabulous!!! Well that enough for now! Thanks again for your prayers for him.

Back from the Doctor

Well we had our 2 appointments this morning.

We have been encouraged these last few days because we're starting to feel like Elliot is finally feeling better. His last dose of antibiotic was 10 days ago....and still no infection has come back! This is very good news...

So we met first with infectious disease. Let me say this first...I love this doctor. I really felt like he took the time to really understand what has been going on with Elliot and really explained to us how he based his assessment of him and what next steps we should take. I was very affirming. As for next steps...since Elliot is doing better...we're going start giving him some Singular - an allergy/asthma preventive medication. This will hopefully help reduce the inflation in his nose and just open his airways more so they can drain properly and reduce the mucus in his system so bacteria can thrive. Also he thinks the reflux medication we put him on in January is helping. Some of the "stuff" they found in Elliot's adenoid is usually found in his stomach and that means he was probably still dealing with reflux and that probably was causing his body to create more mucus to sooth his throat from the reflux. He's pretty sure this is not a milk allergy so we're going to slowly introduce that back into his diet....and we would be able to tell right away if it was a problem. So this visit was very informative and gave us at least some next steps to take.

After that we went to the ENT. Okay..this visit was a 180 degrees opposite the feeling I got at the ID doctor. I think the doctor was in for a whole 4 minutes...and it really felt like when I starting telling him what the ID doc said and suggested...he just checked out and figured we moved on to another doctor. So he just said Elliot looks fine and we'll see him in 6 months. Well....we'll see about that...I think I need to clear my head a little first before I make that appointment or decide just to switch ENT's. Maybe I'm expecting too much but it was such night and day difference from one doctors attention to the other. All I know is Elliot is starting to feel better..so that is all that matters. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers today and these last few weeks. All the encouragement has been wonderful.

Follow Up Appointment

Well we met with the ENT today. We didn't learn too much knew. We have our next follow up appointment for Feb. 24. That is 4 weeks from today to see if the infection is gone. Our ENT prefers to do an exam at this point after he is off the antibiotic for 1 week rather than doing a sinus scan first. A sinus scan at this age requires anesthetic. He did put him on reflux medicine again (previcid this time). Elliot was on this as a baby the first 3-4 months and he's thinking he could still be having trouble with it...not so much that he is uncomfortable anymore with it but that it is causing irritation in the throat thus the mucus glands kick in to create more mucus as a protect ant...so we're going to try this and see if it cuts down some of the mucus he seems to have so much of. We are going to continue to keep him off milk at this time and switch to soy milk instead of vit. d as he approaches 1 year old. This will be one less factor to consider in the mix. So we're just waiting now to see if his infection will clear. We really appreciate so many of you praying and following all the updates with Elliot. We'll continue to keep you updated!

More on Elliot

Well we just returned from the doctor again. Elliot has another ear infection. We had him on an antibiotic as a preventive till the surgery and then on last monday we got him a stronger one since he was showing signs of a sinus infection again (more green). He had a cough at that point but it progressively got worse over christmas and we took him in today. They said he was wheezing as he was breathing so we needed to do a breathing treatment in the office. It did help some, so they sent us home with an inhailer to do more treatments at home. We also got a different antibiotic for his ears...hopefully his body is not resistant to this one and we can clear up this infection. Hopefully when they take out his adenoids on the 12th we can clear out some of this infection that we just can't get rid of. I'm amazed at how well he's done through all of this. You can tell he doesn't feel well but he's so big about it! Poor guy! Hopefully soon his ear will feel better adn we can clear him of this infection in his body. We talked to them about our concerns with all these antibiotics and they understood but said we really need to get this infection gone somehow and he needs to be on them. So we'd apprectiate your prayers that this one will work and he won't catch anything else before the surgery. So we'll be keeping him away from kiddos as much as we can!

Grass!

Okay...what kid loves grass...both my other ones hated to be put on the grass. Elliot...loves it. He just plays with it and loves rolling around on it....Did you notice he's sitting all by himsleft now?

Elliot laugh

Madison loves to make Elliot laugh...here she is "sneaking" up on him to make him laugh.