E's Meds and Allergies

E had his first follow-up visit with the psychiatrist recently. She seemed as surprised as we are that the meds are working so well for him. I know that it's not common for the very first med we've tried to have such an effect. I also know that chances are that it won't always work so well. So, we appreciate the positive changes in him while they last.

Overall, E has calmed down a lot. For the first time ever, he plays alone, using his imagination. For the first time ever, he'll sit down and let us read stories to him. He plays house with his sister, and he sits through most of a video. He is more compliant, and generally nicer.

The meds aren't a cure-all, and I'm glad that I wasn't expecting that they would be. He's had very few rages, but he still routinely hits, destroys things, antagonizes people, and refuses to obey. He also seems to be even more obsessive than he used to be. Yesterday and today's obsession is that his ears are scratchy and he wants them massaged. He becomes more and more frantic as he talks about it, until he's hysterical. This started yesterday, continued through much of the night, and resumed as soon as he woke up this morning. It's exhausting, for all of us!

We're experimenting with different dosages, seeing if there's any change in his nighttime craziness. We also have a consult for another sleep study in a few weeks.

All of E's bloodwork came back normal, with the exception of his low white blood cell count, which is because of his Neutropenia.

E also had more allergy testing done. The good news is that his egg allergy has improved, so we're going to schedule an egg challenge to see if he can tolerate scrambled eggs. It's funny because they called yesterday with the results, right after E had been talking about his egg allergy. He told me that it was okay if he was still allergic to regular eggs, but he really, really hoped that he wouldn't be allergic to green eggs! We've been reading Dr. Suess recently, and he and GracieGirl keep begging for green eggs and ham!

The not so good news is that his peanut allergy actually worsened, and the nurse described his test results to cashews as "unbelievable."

So, we continue on our quest to keep him safe from those allergens. There haven't been any more incidents at camp, except when one of the parents sent a peanut butter sandwich to a camp field trip last week, even though the camp is now peanut-free.

There was also an incident at church on Sunday when he was given a snack. We'd had incidents before when they had a bowl of candy (with nuts) out in the classroom every Wednesday night. Every Wednesday, Nick would take the bowl and tell them that they couldn't have them out because there were children with nut allergies. Every Wednesday, they would tell Nick that the candy was for the adults, not the children. Every Wednesday, Nick would tell them that it didn't matter who they were for; any of the kids could reach them and the ones with allergies could potentially die if they ate them. Sigh. We'd never had a problem on Sundays, though. This past Sunday was simply a lack of communication. The thing with allergies is that all it takes is one little lack of communication.

For now, we continue to make people aware, while trying to keep E safe, resisting the urge to never let him out of the house!

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