Drug free

You might remember the problems we had with Emma's eczema.  I posted about them here and here.

Just before Christmas Emma saw her dermatologist as we have done every three months for the last 20 months.  This time it was different.

Dr Purvis took one look at her and said to Emma would she like an early christmas present?

Emma was like " Yeah of course."

"Well," Dr Purvis said "Now is as good a time as any to stop the methotrexate."

Emma was ecstatic.  I wasn't.

Self portrait - christmas time

Emma hated taking those 3 little pills each and every saturday night.

I hated the thought of the horrid eczema coming back.  I couldn't stand the thought of the child being itchy and scratchy again.  I wanted her to keep taking it forever, so good have been the results.

But stop taking it she did.

And so far, so good.  It has been six weeks.

The drug should be out of her system now.

And the eczema hasn't come back.

Sure she has been a little scratchy here and there, she has had the odd itchy skin.  But there aint no eczema.

She is enjoying the swimming in the sea and being buried in the sand.  She is as good as we could have hoped for.

And if we are not mistaken, this might be here to stay.

Of course it might not too.

We bumped into her kindy teacher at the supermarket yesterday.  She couldn't believe how good Emma looked.  We get these comments regularly from people who haven't seen her for a while.

Looking beautiful at our friends wedding

Emma looking fantastic tonight

Would I do it again?  Absolutely.  I am still so very glad we chose to go down this path.  It really has been life changing for her.  

Barbs x.

Glorious Plums

I just love all the plums we get at this time of year.  Our tree has some beautiful Omega or Black Doris Plums - never quite sure what the difference is actually.  And my mother-in-law has 2 prolific trees.  We made some jam, some dessert topping and froze plenty for later.

With friends coming over for dinner, I decided to try and make a plum cake for dessert.  I found this recipe for German Plum Cake (or Pflaumenkuchen) and being risen with yeast rather than eggs, I didnt have to make any changes for the allergy kid.

I have never made a yeast risen cake before, and I must say kneading the dough was a great stress reliever.  Both the girls joined in the fun.

Sticky dough

After waiting for the dough to rise, we pushed the halved plums into the dough and sprinkled the struesel topping on to it and into the oven.  It sure smells good.

Just out the oven

The cake was really nice, not to sweet and the plums were really tasty.  But I think I need to work on my dough making skills.  For a first attempt I got rave reviews from hubby & the friends we shared it with.

Enjoy

Barbs x.

How to ruin a perfect day.......

First be a little bit tired after a late night.

Second take allergy kid to the Hastings farmers market.

Thirdly let her try things that she couldn't possibly react to - fresh fruit, juices etc.

Then as feeling brave, buy her a roll from the bakery after making sure it was safe for her.

Next get kitted up in togs and head off to Splash Planet.  Hang out in the lazy river, do a few slides then have lunch.  Give allergy kid the roll you bought for her for a special treat.

Have some more fun, kayaking, driving the jungle jeep and a quick go on the flying fox.

Then allergy kid comes to you saying she needs inhaler.  Notice large hives all over her face.  Yell to sister and husband that she is having a reaction.  Run (yes I said R.U.N) to where we left our stuff.

Administer antihistamine and ventolin as per allergy action plan.  No relief noticed.  Grab anapen and run (Yep still running) to first aid post.  Try to administer anapen, hands shaking too much, hubby does it.  Safe and steady hands.  Anapen administered.  Staff call for ambulance.  Watch child go in and out of conciousness.  Talk to paramedic on phone.  Wait for ambulance.  Wait some more.  And more.

Allergy kid still suffering majorly.  More hives popping up, breathing wheezy and irregular.  Finally ambulance arrives (we are probably only talking about 10-15 minutes - feels like a lifetime).  Paramedics come with stretcher, oxygen, large kit full of syringes.  Paramedic administers another shot of adrenaline.  Other paramedic inserts IV line.  Administers more adrenaline via IV.  Allergy kid stabilised. Transferred to stretcher.  I climb into ambulance with her.  Nebuliser given to stabilise her breathing.

Arrive Hastings hospital.  Watch child be hooked up to many monitors and still unable to talk (most unusual as those of you who actually know her will understand).  Prendisolone administered.  Hubby arrives having followed ambulance and left other kids with my sister.  We sit and we wait.

About 2 hours after this all started, allergy kid starts to come round.  Parents breathe sigh of relief.  Child transferred to Pediatric assessment unit.  We wait.  Dr finally comes and says we need to stay over night for observation.

No further reactions noted and we are told we can go home.

And home we come.

Back to Auckland.

This is her second reaction since school broke up.

Back to lunch boxes and never letting our precious daughter eat food prepared by others again.

Sigh.

Barbs x.