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!

The Allergist aka "Dr. Itsallyourfault"

On August 4th, Ella had her appointment with an allergist. I'm all for a doctor exhibiting extreme professionalism and if that means no warm-fuzzies then so be it. However, when said doctor does not even look me in the eyes or acknowledge that my child (aka his PATIENT) is even in the room, I don't exactly feel that I should take his "professional" opinion very seriously.

Reasons why this allergist sucked:

a) He rolled his eyes when he asked what kind of formula she was on and I replied "None. We're breastfeeding."

b) When he came in to give me the results from her skin test, Ella had FOUR welts on her arm but he only said she was allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts... yes, that's only THREE.



From the top (L to R):

Natural Milk, Commercial Milk

Natural Egg, Commercial Egg

Peanut, Corn

Histamine, Saline



c) When I questioned how she could be allergic to all of those things when I eat all of them & she's never had a reaction to my breastmilk, his reply was "Well, if you'd cut all of those things out of your diet we wouldn't be having this conversation right now." Thanks, dude. You're so very helpful and I appreciate you making me feel like the absolute WORST mother on the planet right now.

d) After delivering the news that my 10 month old is allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts, he gives me a prescription for an EpiPen, says "don't feed her any of those things" and "come back in a year." WTF?! That's it??

I cried the whole way home and on and off for the next four hours.