A very hard day for Gabe!

Gabe had his long awaited allergy appointment today. For quite some time now, we have noticed that Gabe reacts to some of the things he eats. We first noticed something was up when he was about 4 months old. I had Dall watch him one night so Dall fed him formula. Well Gabe put up quite a fuss and about 5 minutes later, he threw up everything Dallas had just fed him... and some. So we quite with the formula for a little while until we had our 6 month check up with Gabe's Ped.

 He got the required immunizations for the 6 month check-up and everything else went well. It wasn't until I got home from his appointment that I noticed his eye lids bright red and puffy. He kept on itching them too. So I called his Doctor and they told me to come back to the office right away. I was just a little panicked. Gabe's doctor confirmed that he was allergic to one of the immunizations and we needed to go to an allergy specialist to do some testing before his 12 month check-up and immunizations.

 So in between then and now, there was a pretty scary incident. My mom was feeding Gabe a little bit of an Orange Dreamcicle and it only took him about 10 minutes before he started breaking out in rashes and started to swell. So I immediately drove home to give him some benadryl and on the way, he was coughing pretty bad and trying to clear his throat. I for sure thought that his throat was going to close up. I pulled in the driveway and got him out of the car and he started throwing up like crazy. I don't mean "spitting" up, like baby's do... I mean Throwing Up. It smelt just like adult Vomit (sorry.. too much information.) Needless to say, I was terrified. I got his Pediatrician on the phone and told him what was going on and he told me to give him Benadryl immediately and if the swelling doesn't go down in about 5-10 min, then take him to the ER. Luckily, his swelling went down and he started acting like his usual self in about 5 minutes time. So, I knew he must have been allergic to something in the Dreamcicle.

To make a long post even longer, we took Gabers to the Allergy Specialist today and got some testing done on what exactly he is allergic to. He got the little scratch test done and was a champ through all of that. As you can see in the picture below, 1 is Eggs and 2 is Milk and he is allergic to BOTH of them. Poor little guy. We figured as much though. Then, the Dr. wanted to get a blood draw to see just how allergic he was to both... so we know what to and what not give him for his 12 month immunizations, and to see his levels now compared to a year checkup.... to see if he will grow out of the allergy. This is where the day took a turn for the worst. It took 4 phlebotomists to "TRY" to find a vein. Yes I understand that he is a baby and Yes I understand that he is a "chunky little man" as they liked to call him, and Yes I understand that his veins were teeny tiny and couldn't be found through all his "Pudginess" but it took them 3 times to "try" to find a vein, and once they did, they couldn't get the syringe to suck out enough blood. They poked him in the left hand first, then the right, then she fiddled with the needle in the right crook of his arm for a while to "try" to find a vein. Meanwhile, Gabe is in absolute HYSTERICS as he is sitting on my lap and two nurses are pining his arms down while another nurse is digging a HUGE needle in his arm. I say "TRY" because I personally thought that NONE of them had a clue to what they were doing. I could see plenty of veins on his little hand. I don't think I have ever wanted to punch a bunch of women more in my life than in those moments in that Lab. And that is saying a LOT. Well, they didn't get all the blood they needed to run all the tests so I have to bring him back sometime this week to do it all over again. I can say that I now know what it feels like to NEVER want your child to have to go through any pain whatsoever. I want them to draw my blood, instead of his. I want to shield him from everything that may cause him pain. I love this little person so much and cherish his little life so much more than my own. Oh, he is my WORLD!!! After that horrible appointment was all over with, I took my baby home and snuggled with him for the rest of the day. I never left his side. He was just a little clingy.

Here are a couple pictures of today's events.