I have been needing to replace the toy bins that go in our toy shelf fore a while now. I finally found some at Target that I liked so I bought them. I still have to label them, but I really like how they look in the toy shelf.
We had more allergy testing done today. The last few days have been a little frustrating because I wasn't able to give Shirley any type of antihistamines for a week before the test today, and he was cranky because his eczema was worse. The testing today was much quicker than the patch tasting but more painful. He cried when they applied what they were testing for because they had to get it under the skin. Then we had to wait 15 minuted to read the results and I had to keep him from scratching. I almost couldn't even get him to stop crying. I couldn't hold him because I couldn't touch his back. Luckily, I brought a hot dog for him to eat for lunch (he LOVES hot dogs) and I offered him that him and that calmed him right down and he ate that. They tested for 28 foods and compared the results with the prior test. It would take me a long time to write down everything they tested and the scores they got so I will just give you the final results. Now it is complicated how she figured out on some of them because she used a statistics graph of results from a study of other children with EE. There are a few food that fall in a gray area, not sure if he is or isn't allergic to them, so they will not be introduced into his diet, at least for now.
Here is a conversation I had with Walter this morning:
Walter's basketball season is over. He had his last game last Wednesday and they had their team party on Saturday at Peter Piper Pizza. Walter had a lot of fun. I am glad he enjoyed it. I love sports and love seeing my kids enjoy them as well. He had great coaches and teammates. He had 9 teammates (two are missing from the team picture). He was so excited to get a trophy for playing.
Gil graduated from WOCC (Warrant Officer Career Course) last Tuesday and came home late that night. He was supposed to fly in Wednesday at noon, but surprised me at 12:30 in the morning. Luckily I was still awake or he may have scared me half to death. I am SO HAPPY to have him home. So are the kids. It was fun to see their surprise when they saw him Wednesday morning. They wouldn't leave his side. They talked his ear off. It was so cute. Even Shirley followed him around and cried when he left to go sign in at work. I am very proud of him. he graduated in the top five of his class (of 70 something students) and won the PT award. The PT award doesn't surprise me since he is always working out. He doesn't start the next phase of classes here until April 5th, so we get to spend lots of time with him. I am so happy.
I didn't do anything exciting with the kids. I didn't even know it was St. Patrick's Day until Walter told me it was after looking at the calendar. We had a nice day though. Beautiful weather. Last week it went down to being in the 60's and the last couple of days have been back up into the high 70's. We washed the car yesterday. Shirley loved it. He LOVES playing in water. The kids even played in the sprinkler (on the trampoline) today. 
Shirley is already starting to show interest in Walter's passion for Nintendo. Jem even plays more than he used to. They have time restrictions so I don't worry about them spending too much time playing. They are very well rounded boys. Now that the two of them both like to play sharing the Wii and Nintendo has become an issue. It never was in the past. If Shirley (or even Rilla-though she shows no desire yet) ends up liking it too it can sure get more difficult in sharing. We will see.
This week Shirley had patch testing done to see if he has more food allergies. It was a three day process. The results of this test will be compared to the results of scratch testing that he will have done in a week and a half. He had 16 patches (one being a placebo) placed on his back on Tuesday. They were taken off on Thursday and the results were read yesterday. Here are the results. They are scored 0-3. 0 is no reaction and 3 is highest reaction. Here are the items that were scored 0, or no reaction:
We got the results back from Shirley's biopsy taken during his Upper Endoscopy. I thought it would come back negative for anything, especially since the Prevacid has helped so much with his bowel movements. I couldn't think of anything that it would come back positive for. I have done lots of research about all of Shirley's symptoms, like eczema and asthma, and Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EE) never showed up. But that is what he has. It is a disorder of the esophagus. It is inflammation of the esophagus and children with it often also have asthma and eczema, just like he has. It also explains him not eating anything until he was 11 1/2 months old and him sometimes chewing food and spitting it back out (it can be difficult and painful to swallow). The first step into getting it under control is to identify food allergies and other allergies, like pet allergies, etc. We already now of 5 things that he is allergic to and all five of them are common allergies in people with this disorder. Today I took him up to Tucson and had patch testing started. He has 16 patches (one being a placebo) on his back and I will take him back Thursday and Friday to read the results. Then The allergist will do scratch testing in the near future. Don't know all the details on that yet, or what that will be testing for. What a long journey this has been an will continue to be. I am just so thankful to finally be getting some answers. I knew something wasn't right and I am glad I pursued it. I don't want to see Shirley suffer anymore.
Last night we had a 50's Sock Hop at church. It was so much fun. We dressed up and had a great time. Walter and Jem loved it. They loved dancing to the music. They were so cute in their jeans and white T-shirts. Rilla liked it, too, but got pretty tired. Shirley would have loved it if I would have let him play with the balloons, which I wouldn't. I am paranoid about balloons because if they pop and a piece of the balloon goes into a person's throat they would suffocate. Shirley is at the age where he gets very frustrated if he wants something and I won't let him have it. It didn't help that kids would run by with their balloons and Shirley would see the balloon and almost be able to grab it and have it speed away. His hopes were dashed time and time again. I ended up having to hold him most of the night. I also missed Gil. It would have been so much fun to dance with him. I love 50's music.
