Catching up...

Warning, warning – long post. Grab a beverage and a snack if you plan to read the whole thing…

So, I’m a little odd. I like to do things ‘in order.’ I used to tape television shows if I couldn’t watch them when they were on. Then when I hadn’t managed to watch them and the show and it was on the next week, I would tape next week too rather than watch it as I hadn’t seen the last one yet. Make sense to anyone else?? All that to say, we went on a great vacation and I took a few hundred pictures (most of which I will not make you all endure), but first I have to catch up on the few weeks before vacation…

There was a quick trip to the State Fair, after a longer trip to the Johnson County Fair. We went to the Johnson County Fair with Aunt G, Laney and Car. David was making lemon shake-ups – a work thing, not that that’s his job but that his employer was staffing a booth. Sidenote – he makes a mean lemon shake-up. Yumm! Anyway, I thought the boys would love all the animals. However, we walked into the first barn and there was a goat (?) that was standing on his back legs with his front legs on the fence. He took one look at Luke, leaned in and went “BAAAAAAAA” - rather aggressively if I do say so myself. Luke was done. His lack of animal enthusiasm carried right on into the State Fair as well. But he did love the State Fair’s tractor parade and all the waving in which he was able to participate!

Nevermind the opportunity to look stylish in sunglasses.

And consume 'fair food.'

Then on Sunday, August 23rd close friends and family surprised Grampy with a party to celebrate his 60th birthday. When given grief about his age he responds that he’s worked hard to get here. And he has. And I love that attitude! The party even included an Elvis impersonator. Good times for a great guy!

Arriving at the gathering - not sure why mom looks so surprised? Don't try to look innocent!

Elvince

Trouble - but of the best kind!

So, a group shot of 10 people is a little rough.

On Tuesday, August 25th we went for Luke’s first appointment with an allergist. His peanut allergy was diagnosed via his hives and a blood test ordered by our pediatrician the month before. But I thought I wanted to ‘make sure he wasn’t allergic to anything else.’ The info from the allergist’s office said to allow 3 hours for this visit. That alone was enough for me to dread the appointment [thankfully, it actually took just over an hour]. First it was a nurse for vitals; then some chatting with the allergist; then the nurse to poke and prick all over Luke’s back, while I held him in my arms and he cried; then 15 minutes of holding him while he screamed and tried to flip out of my arms [holding as you don’t want him to scratch and contaminate the little pricks with the contents of the prick above or below it]; then a different nurse came in, took one look at his back, and said, “whoa, we’ve got some allergies” [this I could tell as nearly every poke on his back was hiving up nicely - I just didn't know which pokes were which foods as they were just numbers]; then she handed me a paper and circled everything he was allergic to – peanuts, milk, egg, soy, 2 tree nuts; then the doctor came back to discuss the results (that’s a generous description of the 5 minutes we spent); then the doctor took my sheet and circled all of the tree nuts on the page, maybe indicating I wasn’t smart enough to figure out not to feed him any tree nuts if he’s allergic to some of them, handed me a two page information sheet about how to read a label to avoid everything he shouldn’t eat and then we were done. Basically. Actually, we did discuss that he eats eggs (although only cooked in things as he doesn’t prefer scrambled, etc.), drinks milk multiple times a day, and nearly every packaged anything contains soy! As such, "we" decided to try eliminating eggs and soy from his diet, each one for a week, then reintroducing it to see if there is any noticeable difference that could be a reaction. However, that is not the plan for peanuts or tree nuts as those reactions are generally much more severe and he's already reacted to peanut. We will continue to give him milk as he doesn’t seem to react to it at all. Then we go back in two months. I have read enough since then to know that I also want a blood test at the next appointment. My understanding is that a blood test is a more accurate measure of ‘how allergic’ and is also a good baseline to see if numbers go up or down in the future (rather than measuring the size of the hive with a ruler). Anyway, enough about that. It is what it is. But it is strange that after hearing all the things he seems (?) to be allergic to how "just peanuts and tree nuts" seems like a piece of cake (a piece of homemade, nut free, well-labeled on the package, "safe" cake, but a piece of cake nonetheless!!).

His poor little prickly back - middle and left side.

And that should take us to vacation photos for the next post. Do hold your breath with anticipation! Okay, not really because I'm walking away from the computer for the night, but you know what I mean.