Evan and his Allergies

So, most of you know that little Ev has some serious allergies.  Here is a quick rundown: dogs, cats, and pretty much everything outside (trees, grass, etc.), penicillin, and then there's the food allergies: peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, fish, pineapple, kiwi, watermelon.  Quite a bit, huh?  Oh, and let's add asthma to that.  He can't be officially diagnosed until he can take the breathing test, but he already has a nebulizer with a ready supply of albuterol and he also has a little inhaler for when we are out and about.    

There are days when all of this is tougher than other days.  I hate having to be super careful at restaurants, hate the fact I can't make simple pb and j's for lunch or eggs for breakfast, hate that he can't have the various treats at different events, hate that he's already had several scary asthma attacks, hate that the poor guy can't stop coughing after wrestling with daddy for a few minutes, and hate that he can't pet a dog without breaking out in hives.  Whew...glad I got that off my chest.  All of the allergies are so annoying...but at the same time, that is the best thing about the allergies, that is all they are.  Annoying.  And I have to remind myself of this all the time when I start to feel sorry for myself or him.  We are not having to say goodbye to him after a long fight with cancer (like a family here in Ankeny just had to do) and we don't have to do labs and drive to Peoria or Chicago and worry every time he gets a little bit sick that his kidneys are going to fail (like a friend from high school is currently doing with her son).  So, I try and thank God for Evan's allergies.  I am so thankful that despite all these little annoyances, he is healthy, growing, well-developed little boy.   And as for him, he does have a hard time with it once in a while.  He is starting to understand his allergies more and more, but I can also tell he is starting to understand he is different from other little kids.  And that breaks my heart.  But just as I studied this past week in the Word, God doesn't promise an easy path just because we are following Him. (John 16:33 I have said these things to you so you may have peace, in the world you WILL HAVE TRIBULATION; but take heart, I have overcome the world.)  Evan is young to have to start learning that, but I know that in the long run, God will use it for His glory.  He will use the trial of allergies to make Evan into the man He wants him to be.  

One tidbit of some promising news too: we work with an amazing allergist named Dr. Molis in Des Moines.  She is becoming quite famous for her work in desensitizing kids from their allergies.  At Evan's last allergy test in November, his eggs numbers came down a bit so we were able to do a baked goods challenge in January.  He had to come in and eat little bites of a muffin that came from a recipe with only 1 egg in the whole dozen.  About an hour and a half in and half of a muffin down, he did puke it up.  So, we were back at it last Friday.  He was just given a quarter of a muffin this time, and he didn't throw up!  Praise God!  He did get some hives and a little flushed though.  So, in order to find a base line to desensitize him, we have to go back one more time and he will have 1/8 of a muffin.  If he can handle this, Dr. Molis will give me a schedule of feeding him muffins with eggs at home.  This will get his body used to it and hopefully, get rid of his allergy.  It is kind of like getting allergy shots for outdoor or pet allergens.   She has had a 100 percent success rate with this program over the past year of its existence so it is very exciting.  Anyways, pray that he can get that 1/8 of a muffin down with no problems.  How awesome it would be to start making baked goods with eggs again!  (Then again, it might not be so good for anybody's waistline in our house!) haha!