Doggy Drama

So, have I told you how much I hate the fact that my son has allergies?!

I was so excited when at the last follow-up with his allergist, they said that we could introduce milk and dairy products, just not eggs or nuts just yet. I knew that the dog and cat allergies were still there, but by experiment in different environments with animals, I concluded that Colin was mostly allergic to animal saliva, so as long as he wasn't licked or all over fur that was just licked, then he would be fine.

Well, my theory was disproved today... we went over to a friend's house who happens to have two dogs. This was were my saliva theory was developed, because at some times when we've been over there, he wouldn't have a reaction if he wasn't around the dogs, and other times he would get licked by the dogs and he would break out instantly. I thought I had it... apparently not...

We were fine. We spend almost 3 hours there with no sign of allergies or discomforts. The dogs were calm and out of sight and at the end, one came downstairs and was very good around Colin. Colin was even hugging him and no sign of a rash at all. I thought that he was outgrowing the allergy. Then we got home...

Colin fell asleep on the way home. So, I transferred him from his car seat to the couch with an unzip of his jacket, took hat and gloves off and let him sleep, while his big brother relaxed with some TV (and I could check my email). Colin woke up cranky around 4 PM, which I expected, since I assumed he would be hungry for a snack, since it was close to dinner time. So, I fixed him a sippy cup of soy milk and saw that he was rubbing his eyes. I gave him a dose of Benadryl, since I knew that he spent a significant amount of time around the dogs, just to be safe. Then after he finished the bottle, he came to me in distress. I looked at his eyes and they were almost swollen shut! His left eye more so. I immediately ran a bath and stripped him of his clothes and asked Drew to do the same and got them in the tub. Colin was still in a lot of discomfort and then got a look at his left eye and noticed that his EYE BALL WAS SWELLING! That sent me into mommy panic and rescue mode. I asked Drew to wake up his father and to call the doctor. Matt was in a groggy state of sleepiness, so I ended up scooping up the baby, and the phone and managed to talked to the answering service person (since when was the Ped. office closed at 4:30 PM!!!), while dressing Colin and trying to keep him calm. They took my info and promised the on call doctor would call me back.

Meanwhile, I grabbed a bottle of nasal saline drops (saline is saline, right?! They work for your eyes as well as your nose, right?!) and laid the baby on the bed and tried to flush his eye out, since the only thing I could think of is that he got a dog hair in it somehow. He, of course, didn't like that one bit. After that attempt. Matt was able to call his father (who has a medical background and allergies himself) and was suggested to go and get Visine drops that have an antihistamine in them. Matt was at the store when the doctor called me back. She was NO help at all. I could even tell that she doesn't even have kids by they way he assumed the Colin was going to tell me his his vision was blurry. How many 2 year olds do you know are going to say, "Mommy, I can't see the same as I usually do right now."??? All she said was to watch it and if it didn't get better in an hour that I "might" want to take him to the ER, because you don't want to mess with an allergy to the eye... "No Sh*t, Shirlock?!" She didn't even mention flushing it or a cold compress, which is what WebMD suggested, which is what I was searching, while I was waiting for her to call me back!

So, I made the executive decision to give him another half a dose of Benadryl and let Matt put in the Visine in his eye. That was at 5 PM.

By 9 PM, when I put Colin to bed, his eye was almost back to normal the eyeball didn't look glazed over, like it had and he was in normal spirits. I also gave him another half dose of Benadryl to hold him over night.

Moral of the story.... Colin is allergic to dogs and cats. Period. Reality sucks sometimes.