ONE: Meeting my New Doc
I met my new doc for the first time yesterday and I ((HEART)) her! She is this gorgeous Nigerian-American woman with this slight and lilting accent--one of those people that you just automatically adore the minute you see her. She is SO calm and just beautiful--one of those people you can tell is beautiful inside and out!
So I liked her right away. She was sweet to james and so gentle to me.
She listened to my sordid past--haven't had a real doc for over a year (and sketchy contact with my previous one, who I never loved, in the years before that), using my husband's prescriptions (albuteral inhaler and adderall for ADHD), and didn't judge me or say much at all really!
And the verdict is--ear infection! She asked if I was nursing him (yep--I was nursing him when she walked in the office, guess she didn't even notice, haha), and then said I could take amoxicillan. I told her that I wasn't a huge fan of antibiotics and asked if it would go away on its own.
"Maybe," was her simple answer, with no comment about my opinion either way. I thought for a second and said:
"Well, why don't you give me the prescription and if I think I really need it I will fill it."
"Okay," she said. Again simple, quiet, gentle.
She left the room in the same manner, with a warm: "Very nice to meet you," which I honestly returned!
So that was my appt!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TWO: Dealing with an Ear Infection sans Antibiotics (Part One)
So last night for the first time my ear actually ached instead of just feeling swollen and pressure in my sinuses and glands.
(Sorry if I neglected to ever write about the fact that I was sick, for those who don't follow me on FB--I guess it inspired all this health talk, haha. Basically I got a virus--fever, coughing, and serious fluid in my lungs as is typical for asthmatic me. Okay fine. But then it turned into an ear infection. My first one in probably ten years--WTH?).
Anyway, I decided that if I was going to avoid antibiotics, I needed to ramp my natural cures into gear. So last night I took a steamy shower, did the Neti pot (God I should have been doing it all along it was SO effective), and then had James put breast milk in both my ears (just in case, though only the left was infected--I'll have to write another post about the awesome and amazing cure-all that breast milk is). And I continued to take Mucinex and my asthma inhaler, as I've been doing (otherwise I would have needed antibiotics!), and I woke up this morning feeling better. Not aching anymore, so that's progress. I'm going to do the Netipot again today at least twice and also do the breast milk in ears again before bed.
Wish me luck on being able to beat this! I'll talk about the importance of avoiding antibiotics (when possible) tomorrow afternoon!
Expecting our Little Brother in November!
Showing posts with label Appointments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Appointments. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
4 Month Appointment (And more about the rash)
So James (the hubby) and I took LJ (little James, hehe) to the pediatrician's today for his 4 month check-up!
James is growing and healthy! He now weighs 14 lbs 9 ozs (45%) and is 27 inches long (97%)!
He got his combo shot vaccine today (Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hib, Polio) which we had skipped from his 2 month appointment. This time, I breastfed him WHILE she gave him the shot--that worked out well, he only popped off to let out one little shriek and then he was back to nursing, though somewhat upset, obviously.
The doctor said we can start giving him food if we want to but that we could also wait. I told him we'd probably wait until 6 months before we start really letting him try anything.
About the rash--THANK YOU everyone for all your concerns, questions, suggestions, etc!
To give you an update, the rash is almost completely gone now! I think I have everything that he is allergic to figured out finally! And just when I was ready to throw in the towel . . .
This is what I've been avoiding: Wheat, barley, rye, corn, soy, peanuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, tomatoes, chocolate, citrus . . .
Some of those things (barley, rye, citrus, especially) I'm actually not sure if he is allergic or not. If the rash continues to heal/improve and is therefore pretty much gone by Monday, I will start re-introducing foods then, starting first with the ones that we are least suspicious of.
To answer some of the questions:
YES it is definitely food allergies. I have seen myself that it breaks out after certain meals heavy in allergic foods, and has been improving steadily over the last month that I've been on a restricted diet. The only reason it has taken me this long to figure it out is because certain allergic ingredients have been "hiding" in foods I eat all the time--like corn in EVERYTHING, soy oil in everything (especially the hummus I was eating all the time), etc.
NO it is not an allergy to laundry soap because it is ONLY on his forehead which is in contact with less laundry than any other part of his body. He did react to Dreft soap and the rash at that time was around his neck and chest--which makes sense. We switched to All Free and Clear and have had no more issues.
NO it is not an allergy to lotion. We use no lotion on him except in the last couple days we started using Aveeno and he hasn't had a reaction to that--if anything, it's helping. Normally we put coconut or olive oil on him and on the rash. It does not appear t be a reaction to those things either since, again, we use it all over him and only his forehead breaks out.
NO it is not an allergy to soap. We bathe him infrequently--maybe twice a week, and 75% of the time use no soap on him at all. When we do, we use Dr. Bronner's and an all-natural baby shampoo.
YES we talked to the doctor today and he said the Aveeno lotion would be good for it. I have heard several rec's for Aquaphor so as long as it doesn't contain soy or corn or other allergic ingredients I will probably pick some up. He also said that it definitely looked better, so that the elimination diet seemed to be working.
YES we have tried cortisone and it didn't really help the rash (which is common for a food allergy rash, that cortisone wouldn't help very much). I'm not sure if it would help the itching, but luckily the worst of that seems to be over. I did ask James (the hubby) about cortisone and he wasn't a very big fan, so we'll probably skip it for now.
YES he is basically too young for an allergist or formal allergy tests.
However, about two weeks ago we did start treating his allergies with AAT (Advanced Allergy Therapeutics). It is (sort of) a slow process though because you can only treat one thing at each visit, and first they treat general things like histamines (to prevent over-reaction), and digestive enzymes (for general gut health), etc.
AAT sort of deserves it's own post though.
But we definitely have some tools up our sleeves to deal with this and I am FINALLY seeing a really good result from the elimination diet. So as frustrated and ready to lose it as I was yesterday, today is a new day and it really pays to see my dieting effort pay off!
I actually think part of why he was itching SO badly yesterday (or the day before) was because it was really starting to heal deeply. So as aggravating as it was, it was actually a good sign!
So that was our appointment and more about our rash woes/SUCCESSES, hehe.
James is growing and healthy! He now weighs 14 lbs 9 ozs (45%) and is 27 inches long (97%)!
He got his combo shot vaccine today (Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hib, Polio) which we had skipped from his 2 month appointment. This time, I breastfed him WHILE she gave him the shot--that worked out well, he only popped off to let out one little shriek and then he was back to nursing, though somewhat upset, obviously.
The doctor said we can start giving him food if we want to but that we could also wait. I told him we'd probably wait until 6 months before we start really letting him try anything.
About the rash--THANK YOU everyone for all your concerns, questions, suggestions, etc!
To give you an update, the rash is almost completely gone now! I think I have everything that he is allergic to figured out finally! And just when I was ready to throw in the towel . . .
This is what I've been avoiding: Wheat, barley, rye, corn, soy, peanuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, tomatoes, chocolate, citrus . . .
Some of those things (barley, rye, citrus, especially) I'm actually not sure if he is allergic or not. If the rash continues to heal/improve and is therefore pretty much gone by Monday, I will start re-introducing foods then, starting first with the ones that we are least suspicious of.
To answer some of the questions:
YES it is definitely food allergies. I have seen myself that it breaks out after certain meals heavy in allergic foods, and has been improving steadily over the last month that I've been on a restricted diet. The only reason it has taken me this long to figure it out is because certain allergic ingredients have been "hiding" in foods I eat all the time--like corn in EVERYTHING, soy oil in everything (especially the hummus I was eating all the time), etc.
NO it is not an allergy to laundry soap because it is ONLY on his forehead which is in contact with less laundry than any other part of his body. He did react to Dreft soap and the rash at that time was around his neck and chest--which makes sense. We switched to All Free and Clear and have had no more issues.
NO it is not an allergy to lotion. We use no lotion on him except in the last couple days we started using Aveeno and he hasn't had a reaction to that--if anything, it's helping. Normally we put coconut or olive oil on him and on the rash. It does not appear t be a reaction to those things either since, again, we use it all over him and only his forehead breaks out.
NO it is not an allergy to soap. We bathe him infrequently--maybe twice a week, and 75% of the time use no soap on him at all. When we do, we use Dr. Bronner's and an all-natural baby shampoo.
YES we talked to the doctor today and he said the Aveeno lotion would be good for it. I have heard several rec's for Aquaphor so as long as it doesn't contain soy or corn or other allergic ingredients I will probably pick some up. He also said that it definitely looked better, so that the elimination diet seemed to be working.
YES we have tried cortisone and it didn't really help the rash (which is common for a food allergy rash, that cortisone wouldn't help very much). I'm not sure if it would help the itching, but luckily the worst of that seems to be over. I did ask James (the hubby) about cortisone and he wasn't a very big fan, so we'll probably skip it for now.
YES he is basically too young for an allergist or formal allergy tests.
However, about two weeks ago we did start treating his allergies with AAT (Advanced Allergy Therapeutics). It is (sort of) a slow process though because you can only treat one thing at each visit, and first they treat general things like histamines (to prevent over-reaction), and digestive enzymes (for general gut health), etc.
AAT sort of deserves it's own post though.
But we definitely have some tools up our sleeves to deal with this and I am FINALLY seeing a really good result from the elimination diet. So as frustrated and ready to lose it as I was yesterday, today is a new day and it really pays to see my dieting effort pay off!
I actually think part of why he was itching SO badly yesterday (or the day before) was because it was really starting to heal deeply. So as aggravating as it was, it was actually a good sign!
So that was our appointment and more about our rash woes/SUCCESSES, hehe.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Two Months Old
Today is January 19th, meaning that James David is two months old today!
We had his two month appointment today. At birth, he was 8 lbs 7 ozs, and 23 inches long. At one week he was 7 lbs 12 ozs (it is normal for them to lose weight at first). Today, at two months, he was 12 lbs, 6 ozs, and 25 inches long! He is in the 60th percentile for weight but the 99th percentile for length/height.
He also got two shots today--Pneumococcal and Hib, to prevent meningitis and influenza type B, both of which are life-threatening and common diseases for infants. He was supposed to get another shot that was like 5 more vaccines, but we want to space them out, so we only got two today. (Our whole vaccine stance could probably be it's own post, so I'm not going to go into that now).
All in all, James David is a healthy and growing boy! We go back in two more months, I can't wait to see how big he is then!
We had his two month appointment today. At birth, he was 8 lbs 7 ozs, and 23 inches long. At one week he was 7 lbs 12 ozs (it is normal for them to lose weight at first). Today, at two months, he was 12 lbs, 6 ozs, and 25 inches long! He is in the 60th percentile for weight but the 99th percentile for length/height.
He also got two shots today--Pneumococcal and Hib, to prevent meningitis and influenza type B, both of which are life-threatening and common diseases for infants. He was supposed to get another shot that was like 5 more vaccines, but we want to space them out, so we only got two today. (Our whole vaccine stance could probably be it's own post, so I'm not going to go into that now).
All in all, James David is a healthy and growing boy! We go back in two more months, I can't wait to see how big he is then!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
