Favorite Moment

In case you've been reading every other post around here, Mikey's been sick every other week since October. The colds have been getting progressively worse, unfortunately. They seem to move quickly into his chest, and he spends the better part of a week wheezing. At his last appointment, the pediatrician had Mikey get some bloodwork to see if he was allergic to something in his environment. I got the results late yesterday. Sure enough, Mikey is allergic to cats, dogs, eggs, and dust mites. I knew about the cats already; we can't be in my mother-in-law's house more than a couple of hours before Mikey gets what appears to be the worst cold of the century. This last time was really bad. Before we could make it home, his left eyed had swollen shut and he was wheezing terribly. All this after my mother-in-law vacuumed the house top-to-bottom and without Mikey ever seeing the cat. Not good.

You know what else isn't good? The doctor encouraged us to get rid of these two:

Buddy, age 8 and Buster, age 7

We're looking into alternatives. The pediatrician did say he was comfortable with the dogs staying outside. I'm also looking into some homeopathic remedies and treatment for Mikey to use in concert with the traditional options. All in all, we're still formulating strategy.

The egg thing sucks, too. After I found out last night about the allergy, I immediately made a mad dash to the store and bought ingredients to make vegan cupcakes for school the next morning. I wanted Mikey to have a cupcake like all the other kids in his class Easter party. I finished them at 10:00pm (plenty early!) but screwed up on the recipe. I had a choice between adding more vanilla or adding almond extract, and without thinking I went for the almond extract. Almond extract is an acquired taste--and Mikey hasn't acquired it, yet. There he was, looking very sad as his friends inhaled chocolate cupcakes he didn't for the life of him understand why he couldn't eat.

It broke my heart. I know it's just a cupcake and my first time baking without eggs, blah, blah, blah... but I'm still sad I couldn't make him a great tasting cupcake. Rest assured! By the time his birthday comes in June, I will have figured out a recipe for the best damn egg free cupcakes the world has ever tasted. I don't care if it kills me--I'm showing up to school on his birthday with treats that will leave the kids and teachers begging for more.

So why is all this my favorite moment? Well, because his bloodtest came back and shows he has an allergy to cats and dogs and eggs and dustmites and not Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. Let's put things into perspective: it could be worse. So, the kid can't have eggs. I'll figure out how to cook and bake without them. The dogs? I won't stop until I have a solution for that, either. I don't care about cats. We don't own any, and I'm sure my mother-in-law won't mind visiting us instead of the other way around. Dust mites? Now I have motivation to actually clean my house when I'm not under the threat of people coming over. Maybe more than I would like, but a clean house never killed anyone. It may have driven people to drink too much, but there's treatment for that, too. And, let's not forget the really great thing about all this! Maybe, just maybe, we'll go a week around this place without someone being sick. Wouldn't that be something?

If anyone has experience with these types of allergies and would like to share links or tips, please do so in the comments. I have a feeling I'll be a googling fool this weekend!