De-medication Update

I blogged about four days ago about Alex's de-medicating process. Basically, I'm taking him off of Claritin in hopes of having him a little less drugged for awhile. Well, it's been four days and tonight is the fifth night he will have completely skipped all allergy meds. I am happy to say that he is doing really well. Every once in a while he will rub his nose. But to be perfectly honest, he did that with Nasonex and Claritin in his system. So in the end, I'm not sure I see too much of a difference. Once more, I can only assume that the medication is fully out of his bloodstream and that this means that his allergies are in check for the time being. We actually had a bigger test when we went to Mandy's house for a play-date. She has three dogs and Alex has a dog allergy (the last time we tested him anyways). For safety's sake, I wiped him down when he got home with a wet rag to remove any residue. But other than that, he did great. The other development is how he has been since removing him from Claritin. He has more energy. Which, of course, I didn't think was humanly possible. He is also waking up a lot earlier and is rip-roarin' ready to go. He seems to have a lower tendency to have tantrums as well. I would like to think that the medication isn't responsible for his short fuse, but I suppose that when he has to go back on it, that will tell me more. I am still watching him like a hawk for any of the tell tale signs that he is needing the anti-sniffy drugs, but as of now things are looking great. I'm hesitant to be optimistic. But...I'm slowly getting there. There are a lot of people praying for the not-so-little little guy. So here's hoping that the weeks continue with no problems. I guess for now it is one reason I am thankful for winter.

Abby-1, Commando Joe-0

Play dates are back in full force. Thank goodness for that. Alex and Abby have been running up and down the walls to get out of this house. So today we bundled up and headed to Aunt Mandy's house for a nice little play date. One of the issues we have going over to Mandy's house is with miss Abby. She has a bit of an obsession with putting things in her mouth. Yes...I know that most kids do. But Abby is obsessed. I would say that on on average, I have to tell her to spit something out of her mouth twenty times a day. And that's on a good day. Unfortunately, she is more prone to doing this at places outside of our home. Why? I can only guess it is because the objects are so much tastier in a new environment. She is also very bad about biting and gnawing on things. Wesley, like Alex, got a nice bag of army men for Christmas. (Can you see where this is going?) So after the third time of saying, "Abby, what's in your mouth?" she waltzed over to me and spit out something new, grinning all the while. It wasn't an army man. Oh no. It was the head of an army man. Apparently she bit it off. Seriously...she BIT the head off of a hard plastic army man. I laughed so hard I cried. So here lies Comando Joe...


...a brave soldier who simply didn't stand a chance against Abbyzilla. Poor Joe. Not the first casualty...but definitely the funniest. Let this be a warning to all the little green army men in our house.

De-medicate

Today is day one of Alex's de-medication process. For the past six or seven months (I've lost count to be honest) Alex has had to be on three different medications to control is asthma, allergies, and allergic rhinitis. When spring his last year, he started getting a very bad asthma cough and it happened the worst at night. Which, according to the doctor, means bad dust allergy. But during the day, he was a disaster due to pollen and all the happy joy-joyness of springtime. So seeing as how it is now winter, and the first frost has (should have) killed off the outside allergens, we have been told to try and get him off of his allergen meds. Now, in order to do this, I have been in psycho cleaning mode. I just bought his mattress allergen-proof cover and done all the possible cleaning I could possibly do to prepare for this. About two weeks ago, I took him off of Nasonex. I was nervous, but it turned out great! No sniffing or nose rubbing since. Woo-hoo! One med down. The big one I want to get him off of is Claritin. It's literally been in his system for well over six months straight and I have no idea how he is going to react without it. Last night I got up the courage to skip it. It has now been almost 24 hours without it and I am pleased to say that day one is a success. So far there are no sneezes, no sniffles, and no nose rubbing. Now, I have no idea how long it takes to get the effects of the drug completely out of your system. So if you by chance read this blog and know anything about allergies and meds like Claritin, feel free to comment and give me your take on how long it took to get it out of your system. I'd be delighted to hear what you have to say. Otherwise, this is going to take some prayer and patience. I am hoping that he is going to do well for a few months until pollen season jumps back into high gear. It would be nice to not have him so medicated for awhile. He will remain on his controller medicine, Pulmicort respules, until who knows when. I can only pray to God that his asthma gets better and that one day he won't have to be on any medications at all. Until then, please keep Alex in your prayers in this situation. And if you have a spare prayer for me, I'd appreciate it too. Sometimes his health issues can weigh very heavily on my heart and nerves.

Funday Sunday

So, when I started Funday Sunday I said I'd use it to share fun recipes or neat items of food that I've found that are milk-free. During Halloween, it was difficult to watch Alex ask for all of the chocolaty goodness and have to tell him no. I don't know why it hurts me to think that all those other kids get to try the Three Musketeer or the Snickers but not him. After weeding out all the milk-free candy, I got to wondering if I would ever find a label on something chocolate that would not include dreaded milk. This is when I almost tossed my miracle candy into the milk pile. I saw a little box of Junior Mints and after checking countless labels, didn't know if it was worth looking. But to my surprise, it said "May contain traces of milk" but didn't actually contain any in the ingredients list. So I got all warm and fuzzy inside and decided to research it. I called the company and had a message in to product control. They actually called me back a couple of days later and told me that it is packaged on the same line that have packaged one product that also may contain milk. Turns out that this product only 'may contain milk' because of where one of the ingredients come from. The lines are fully cleaned and sanitized and so after careful consideration...Alex can now have Junior Mints. Chocolate for my milk allergic kid! Ahh...a silver lining to the madness. I'll still always check the label though.

So Begins a New Year

With the start of the new year, I'd like to say that I have a bunch of resolutions to start the year fresh, but I don't think that I really do. I have yet to actually make a solid resolution that I kept. And that is mostly due to the fact that I haven't really made many actual new year's resolutions. I'd like to say that this year will be the year that I do something big and amazing with my life, but only time will tell. I'll just be happy to successfully raise Alex and Abby to be another year happier and healthier.

This year is different from the previous few because of two things. First, I have zero cribs in the house. So that makes it official that I don't have anymore babies in the house. Second, we have no sense of job security with Josh, which is always a cause for my constant supply of Tums. But we have the hope that things will only get better from here on out.

For a first time in awhile, I had the joy of ringing in the New Year alone. Well, maybe 'alone' isn't the most accurate word. But it's pretty darn close. Josh's job has taken him away from us for awhile now. He's been home everyone once in awhile for laundry and Christmas day, but overall not long enough. I actually feel very bad for him. The job is taking a toll on him. He has zero personal time anymore and has been living out of a suitcase. He actually hasn't played his World of Warcraft for going on a month now. That may not seem like a big deal for most, but it's a fairly good indicator as to what his life has become. The kids miss him dearly and are constantly asking where he is or when he is coming home. I see how tired and exhausted he is and how frustrated he is with his job and my heart goes out to him. He's definitely not the same Josh that I am used to. He even got sick this past week with a cold and can't seem to shake it because his immune system is drained. And please note that he is never sick. The job that he has, has inhuman hours and schedules and he's trapped there due to Union rules. So needless to say, he's working today (New Year's Day) and I rang in the new year by myself on the couch watching Transformers 2. It wasn't a bad night, but the entire time I kept thinking about Josh waking up at 4:30 in the morning and leaving us again. So our hope for the new year is that Josh will get a better job at some point in time with decent hours that don't require he transform into a robot to survive. (I also wouldn't mind moving into a new house with more room sometime, but hey...one hope at a time, right?) It was a tough year last year, but we came through with heads held high. So here's hoping for 2010. To all you and yours, I hope that your new year is full of wonderful things!

It's Snow Time!

We had a white Christmas here. How wonderful is that? It was especially wonderful because I have two kids who think snow is the greatest thing since the discovery of sand. But in essence, it is better than sand. Why you ask? Because like sand, you can dig, throw, scoop, shape, roll in and make a mess with it. But unlike sand, you apparently can eat it without the discomfort of pooping it out later. Okay, okay. Too much information, right? But, no. I do not necessarily approve of snow eating (for the most part). Fresh snow: okay. Three day old snow that every squirrel in the neighborhood has peed on: not okay. But, nevertheless, snow time was a blast for the kiddos. They had so much fun playing outside even though it was in limited bursts of time. The second time we went out, the snow was actually the perfect consistency for a snowman. I really haven't made an actual snowman in quite a while. But I decided that seeing as how Josh has been gone and couldn't be outside to join us in the snowy goodness, I'd build a Snow Josh. AKA, Snow Dad. At his job, he is required to wear a hard hat (thank goodness) so lucky for me, I just happened to have a handy dandy toy hard hat to make our Snow Dad complete. I just figured that if I couldn't have a man around the house then I might as well make one. Unfortunately, within minutes of creating my perfect snowman, the kids promptly saw to it to destroy him. Sorry Josh. Kids. What are ya gonna do? But after many snow angels, snowballs, snow in the face, snow eating and snowman building...it was time to go in for a nice cup of hot (soy) cocoa. I will say that I never really thought much of snow the last decade or so. Now with kids, I really do think it's pretty awesome stuff.

Monkeys

Just thought I'd share a fun video with you all. But I suppose I should address a couple of things about the video before you watch it. You will understand my points when you watch it.

1. Yes. I let my kids jump on the couch. They get bored and the house is small. I'm okay with it. Besides, it's become impossible to stop them.

2. No. I no longer own shirts that are not stretched out on the bottom. I can thank Abby for that.

3. Yes. I encourage the monkey-like behavior that they tend to portray. Of course...I truly believe that it's sort of an unstoppable trait they both have.

4. Abby is usually joining in the insanity when she's not hanging off my shirt or sucking her thumb.

5. Yes. My couches always look like that.