allergies

It is found that tree pollen can cause symptoms of depression. A psychologist at the Mood and Anxiety Program of the University of Maryland and School of Medicine analyzed surveys of 845 men and women and found that two thirds of the people surveyed reported mood difficulties during the spring season, which is when pollen levels are very high. It is believed that airborne allergens produce inflammation in the respiratory airways and the inflammation causes symptoms of depression in some people.

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The older I get, the more I realize that we, as a country, have our priorities pretty messed up. We care mostly about ourselves and our families and we don't do enough - as a
country, as a society, and as individuals - for each other.

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I've been a member of my church for a long time. I chose it as a 12-year-old after visiting there with a friend and getting swept up in the youth activities. I had ties there anyway - I went to preschool there, just as my son does now. A really crappy picture of a pig-tailed me hangs amongst the class pictures on the walls.

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Ok, so I may be lacking in things to get really excited about....as is obvious with this post....but I just found out that as of January 24th (as in this Thursday!!!!) Zyrtec is going over the counter!

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I've decided to phase out sleeping entirely. I really need the extra hours to work while my kids sleep, and you know, they wake me up every 20 minutes at night anyway. Every night's sleep is more like a series of naps. It's beyond aggravating.

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The last few weeks have simulataneously blown chunks and been wonderful.

The chunky moments have been many. Some involved shelling out piles of cash. The car went to the mechanic three times to fix the same problem. The last and hopefully final fix cost $558. One of our dogs had a lump that went whacky so we had to have it removed (and we had her teeth cleaned at the same time because, you know, canine dental hygiene is important). The bill came to $616. The Discover card is getting a workout!

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First off, I'm ashamed to admit how far I've fallen behind in this blog. The thing is, I keep thinking that I need to "catch up" before I can post something new. So I don't post anything new. That's dumb, I know.

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Since my darling son was diagnosed with something like 30 food allergies, mealtime has been daunting. His birthday is coming up and I've been working hard to find a proper cake for him. Proper, hell, EDIBLE is really what I'm looking for.

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It's 2am and I'm still up, despite being dead-dog tired and fighting a virus. Why? I fed the baby cherries. Approximately three and a half cherries over the course of three days. And as with most of the foods we've tried on her, she's allergic. I HAVE to feed her the food twice in order to be able to test it. I fed the cherries twice, with a day in between. And we have a hive and a child who cannot sleep. It sucks giant ass, and I know tomorrow is going to be a bitch with me being stupidly tired. Again.

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I'm exhausted. It's 11:51pm and I just finished baking a bunch of crap that will probably never be eaten by anyone but my dogs. I was attempting to make some kind of breakfast food that my son would eat (other than a handful of Frosted Flakes with maple syrup on them. Yeah, I know...).

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Tomorrow both of my children will undergo another round of food allergy testing. This is the first time that both of our children will be enduring the rigors of this test on the same day.

Both of them will have skin prick testing, which means they will lie on their stomachs (not particularly voluntarily) while a nurse drops serum from potential allergens on their skin in neat little lines. Then he will use a needle and pierce small holes in the skin so that the serum can sink in. The each child will have to lie still for 15 minutes as the potential allergens soak in and some (or, in a worst case scenario, all) of them begin to itch and redden the child's skin to indicate that they are actual allergens.

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I spent some of yesterday trying to figure out what in Lemon Drop-flavored Jelly Belly jelly beans caused my son to break out in what is probably the most horrendous case of hives he's ever had.

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Today I learned that an almost-four-year-old boy has to consume about seven tablespoons of Gillette Fusion shaving cream before showing any ill effects (according to Poison Control, who is starting to get a rather hefty file for my son). Those ill effects will allegedly consist of some sort of unpleasant bowel movement. I'm waiting to find out whether the boy consumed more or less than seven tablespoons (I really think it was less). I can hardly stand the excitement.

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As I've mentioned before, my kids have pretty significant allergies. My son is allergic to 23 foods as well as most indoor and outdoor allergens.

We're just learning about the food allergies, and I haven't really explained everything to the boy. After all, he's not yet four, it's just too complicated.

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Diagnosing Allergies

Some allergies are easy to identify, because there is an obvious pattern of symptoms following exposure to certain substances. For example, if a person always sneezes around cats, that points to an allergy to cats. Someone who gets a runny nose and itchy, watery eyes every spring may be allergic to pollen.

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