Alexis At The Lake

Lake Clitheral, MN

I found shoes and I know how to use them!

I'm going to climb on this chair all weekend!

See!....

Round of applause... I can stack!

The water was too cold to swim... put my toes in and it made me scream.
Maybe next year.

It's a long drive home...
Perfect for a nap!

Baby #2 Update

Need to start at the beginning. I started going back to my chiropractor for extreme pain in my hip. It's been there since about 16 weeks along and progressively got worse. I figured I'd just deal with it... that was until the pain was so severe my leg was giving out as I walked or when I hit the bottom step coming down the stairs. Figured that wouldn't be good if I was carrying Alexis. I've been going for adjustments for about 3 weeks now and it's SO much better!!!!

At my last checkup two weeks ago, the nurse said my tummy was measuring a little big. But, considering the hip pain I was having, my pelvis may just be low.

That brings us to today's ultrasound to check the baby's size. My blood sugars have been good, but they just want to make sure the baby's not getting big. He/she measured out to be around 2 pounds 10 ounces... which is in the 38th percentile for 29 weeks. Good news! We have a couple pictures but I have to scan them. We'll go again in 4 weeks for another size scan to see how we're progressing.

Alexis' Formula

If Alexis is allergic to milk and soy, what does she drink?

It's a question I've gotten a lot since sharing her allergy tests. It's also something we've dealt with now since last October when her RAST tests came back positive for for the milk and soy allergies.

We give her something called an elemental formula... Neocate. From what I understand, it's basically stripped of its proteins because that's what she can't have. But it still gives her the vitamins, fat and calories she needs to grow and develop on track.

Well, those formulas are very expensive. Buying them in the grocery store can be nearly $40/can and we go through a can every two to three days. It adds up quickly and isn't covered by insurance, even though it's prescribed by our doctor.

Well, one of the families in our food allergy support group is now taking action to change that by working with our lawmakers to try to require insurance companies to cover the special formulas.

I was able to share her story with our HealthBeat reporter, Kelli. And tonight, we shared her story with the rest of KELOLAND. Watch it for yourself.

KELOLAND.COM - Fight For Formula Coverage

Bill and I actually buy nearly all of Alexis' formula in bulk on e-bay. We've bought it that way for as low as $15/can. But even that adds up and it's a gamble each time financially, not knowing what kind of deal you'll find.

You can only imagine how great of a day it is when we happen to be at the doctor's office and they have a sample can of formula! It doesn't happen very often, but the great part is that it does. Ah, the simple joys in life!

Allergy Test

Alexis saw the allergist today and she reacted to four/five things:
What they did was put drops of liquid with the allergens on her back, waited for one minute and then wiped them off, waited another 14 minutes and measured the size of the splotches to determine her reaction.

Looking at the splotches from the left to right... the one farthest left is the cat dander, next to that is dog dander... so you can see she's much more allergic to cats than dogs. The doctor says she may not actually react to the cats until she's more like 18 months and then we can expect to see more of a drippy nose, but the Zyrtec she takes should help with that when she's at Busha's house.

The next area was the control... basically a mosquito bite. That was just to make sure the Zyrtec she takes is out of her system and to help them measure the severity of her reactions. She had to be off the Zyrtec for 10 days before the testing.

Then the big one just to the right of & below that is Milk. We knew she was allergic but was hoping she, maybe, had grown out of it. Obviously not.

Finally, if you can see the little splotch on her diaper line, just to the right of her spine... that's soy. The doctor believes since that reaction is so minor, she could possibly tolerate soy if we gradually introduced her to it. So once her cold is cleared up, we're going to try that by adding soy milk to her bottles, one drop at a time.

Since she tested negative for all the other environmental elements, he says we've ruled them out for triggering her breathing problems, leading to more of an asthma diagnosis. So now we can discuss that with her pulmonologist when we see him again in October.

While they weren't the answers we were hoping for, they're still answers. I'm looking forward to seeing how she does on the soy so we can then talk with the doctors about what to give her for her "milk" intake to make sure she's getting the calories and vitamins she needs.

One step at a time... we're getting there!