The Allisons

I would be remiss if I did not do an update on our recent doctor appointments. Our internet has been painfully slow for the past 2 weeks, so you will not be seeing any videos today. They take quite a while to upload when the internet is normal, so it would take years if I attempted to do any right now. Although, I do have several waiting to be uploaded.

It's been a while, so the first couple of pics are from our last snow--which was substantial. Three days this week, the sun was shining and it got up into the low 50s. Boy, was that nice! The pic of Jonas (at the very bottom) was when we were outside enjoying the sunshine. (8 1/2 mos) Now it's back to rain/sleet and upper 30s. Boo.

On one sunny day, I just could not justify staying in like we do every other day, so I decided to hike to the next town over in search of a playground I'd been told about. We never found it, but it took about 2 hours to get there and back. The towns here seem to be connected both by roads and by trails through the forests and fields. This picture was taken in a hilly field.

And now for the medical updates. Last week, Jonas went to the allergist. He tested positive for allergies to milk, eggs, and peanuts. The picture above is just a couple of minutes into the 15 minute test. There were 7 "scratches". The very large one in the middle is the positive histimine (the test to know if his skin would react properly). To the left of that one is the soy (which you can't see since there was no reacation) and then egg. Under the egg was milk (which got bigger as time passed) and under that was peanut. To the right of peanut (back toward the middle of his back) was the neg. histamine (which didn't react) and above that was wheat (which reacted just slightly. He was a big boy and didn't even cry during the scratches like the nurse warned me he might. Poor guy--he's so used to being uncomfortable that a tiny needle scratching his skin was no big thing. :(Since I'm still breastfeeding those things are off limits for me too. We are praying that he will grow out of these allergies, but for now, it's a big adjustment for our family. Even though Mike and Ezra don't have to participate, they pretty much are anyway because 1) It's torture to have stuff in the house that I can't eat, and 2) It's silly to have to cook two different meals for everyone. The Dr. said that the allergies may or may not be the cause of Jonas' eczema, but we might see some improvement in 3-4 weeks. Here's hoping!

Today, we saw the dermatologist. He gave us another kind of moisturizer to use 3-4 times a day like the other one, some more Desonide (the steroid cream), some oral antihistamine for his itching, and suggested that we give Jonas a bleach bath 3-4 times a week. This obviously was the cause of some concern for me. The Dr. tried to convince me that half a bath tub filled with water and 1/2 cup of bleach was perfectly safe, but I had doubts. I researched it a further when I got home, and most sources said that it was about the same (chemically speaking) as the chlorine in pool water (and perfectly safe). I would much rather take him to the pool than give him a "bleach bath" though. It sounds like some sort of Nazi torture technique to me. Yikes!

Can you tell his hair has gotten lighter? Oh, and he says Da-Da all the time. Mike is so proud.

So that's the update. Hopefully our internet will be back up to full capacity soon and I can put some videos on here.