The lightbulb over my head just went on

Per the advice of Dr. Natural, we removed oatmeal from Ella's diet. After about 4-5 days, we saw a drastic improvement in the rash around Ella's mouth. Then, I stupidly gave in to her request for oatios and the rash seemed to reappear right before my eyes. The rash stuck around for a few days then started to clear up then got worse again.

Saturday, we were visiting some friends and I brought some GF pasta for her and I to eat while the others were enjoying the most delicious looking baked ziti I'd seen in a very long time. As I was stirring her pasta with a wooden spoon handed to me by our hostess, it occurred to me that I had probably just introduced a nice healthy dose of cross-contamination into the pot. And sure enough, as she was scarfing down the pasta, Hubby leaned over and asked "is it just me or is her rash getting worse?" *sigh* It was.

I remembered reading an article about contamination way back in the super overwhelming first few days after diagnosis and I spent a lot of time removing allergens from our pantry but never could get myself to toss the cutting boards or pots & pans that we received for our wedding less than 3 years ago. I did my best to scrub everything down but now after making the connection between her rash and cross-contamination, I realize the importance of making and keeping our kitchen gluten free. Glutenfreegoddess has a great blog entry about how to start living gluten-free. I read it again today and promptly tossed all of our wooden spoons and banished our wooden salad bowl and cutting board to the basement, in hopes that some day we'll outgrow our allergies/sensitivities and we can use them again.

I'm trying not to beat myself up for being so layed back about the cross-contamination threat. I've been so careful about label reading and preparing meals that contain no allergens. I guess I was just hoping that that was enough. Now that I've acknowledged that cross-contamination certainly could be playing into that darn rash, I'm hoping that with some diligence, it'll clear up for good ASAP.

On a positive note, over the past 2-3 weeks, we've had contact with dogs during play dates and visiting friends with dogs and Ella's had not one.single hive!!!! We are cautiously optimistic that may be turning a corner and starting to outgrow some of her allergies. Even if it's just dogs right now, that's still a huge relief and one less thing I need to stress about! Keep your fingers crossed!

The results are in!

On September 11th, we returned to Dr. Natural's office, anxious to learn the fate of my diet. I'd lost 4 lbs in the last three weeks and the redness around my nose appeared to be fading.

First, she revealed Ella's IgE test results (<0.35>Cockroach: 0.50

Dog Dander: 1.36

Egg White: 17.30

Milk: 0.76

Peanut: 36.10

Soybean: 7.30

Wheat: 0.66

And my IgG test results:

• Almond (+1)
• Celery (+1)
• Cherry (+1)
• Coco-Chocolate (+1)
• Coconut (+1)
• Corn (+1)
• Eggplant (+1)
• Grape (+1)
• Milk, Cow's (+1)
• Mushroom (+1)
• Oat (+1)
• Peanut (+4)
• Pineapple (+1)
• Radish (+1)
• Rice (+1)
• Rye (+1)
• Sesame (+1)
• Soybean (+1)
• Sunflower (+2)
• Tomato (+1)
• Wheat (+1)
• Yeast, Baker's (+2)
• Yeast, Brewer's (+3)

It looked like I was going to have to get used to being hungry. It was also a relief to know that Ella was allergic to dogs because it certainly explained why she would randomly break out in hives at the homes of friends & family who had pets!

Be still my beating heart

After our horrid experience with Dr. Itsallyourfault, I was desperate to speak with a medical professional who could look me in the eyes and talk to me about my daughter's allergies with compassion. I found a Naturopath who specializes in women and children and called for an appointment.

In the meantime, Ella and I went to a picnic at my bff's while Hubby was away for the weekend. I cut up some strawberries for the salad that I brought, quickly rinsed off the knife and set to work cutting up some green beans and a veggie burger for Ella. I set her up in her travel high chair, made sure bff was keeping an eye on her and went to fill up a plate for myself. Two minutes later I hear my bff yelling for me, "Becky! Becky! Her face is all red!" I drop my plate and run over, thinking she's choking and prepared to do the heimlich on her. When I get to her side, my little angel baby looks up at me. Only she doesn't look anything like my angel baby. Her cheeks, her eyes, her nose, her lips... everything is swelling up! Luckily, when I packed the diaper bag that morning, I had packed the EpiPen and a couple Benadryl pre-filled single use spoons. My hands were shaking so badly, I couldn't rip the damn thing open! Note to self: wright a letter to the company asking them to make these easier to open. Luckily, bff saved the day and ripped the package open, twisted off the top and squeezed 1/2 the dose into Ella's mouth. Within seconds, we see the swelling go down and redness fade. Holy hell my heart can't take much more of this!

Later that week, I went for a walk with a friend, her two boys and their sweet doe-eyed black lab. Before we left the driveway, the dog gave Ella a nice ol' kiss on the cheek which left her squealing and shrieking in excitement. I've never seen a baby love dogs as much as this one does! Half way through our walk, I notice a rash on Ella's cheek. I chalked it up to the sunscreen mixed with the intense amount of drool pouring from her mouth. When we got back to her house, we went inside where Ella proceeded to shove every toy within reach into her mouth. As I tried to play interference and bat the toys out of her mouth, she started chomping on the edge of the leather couch. Oy vey, child! Oy vey! When I noticed that the rash had spread to both cheeks and all around her mouth, I decided it was time to go. A phone call with my friend later revealed that her boys had eaten eggs for breakfast and the dog had licked their plates clean. Gahhh!