The Spotted Monster

Today I took Emmett to the dermatologist to get his stitches out. Stitches, you say, hmmm.. Tara hasn't posted anything about this. They were our first kid ones ever and here's the story.

Since last February Emmett has had a recurring problem with breaking out in red spots all over his body. See the post & pictures about the first time Emmett broke out. (The Elephant Baby) He has never been so bad as this first time, but it is definitely a recurring problem and we've been to the pediatrician more times than I wanted to spend a $15 co-pay. The good thing about all this is that Emmett has never been bothered by the spots. He acts as if they aren't there and they don't seem to itch or hurt him at all. Which is why we haven't been more agressive about treating them or finding out the cause. He's been on & off antihistamines, which seem to help and as a side effect make him drowsy - which could be the cause of his sleeping 4-5 hours per day & 12 hours at night - but who's complaining? We tried a course of daily Allegra and when he was broken out continually for 2 weeks with that we took him to a dermatologist.

This was quite the drama. I figured it would just be a consultation so I took Alden too. He was very good during the whole thing. Emmett did okay with like 3 doctors & nurses looking him over VERY closely for like 20 minutes solid. After all, Mom was still holding him. It was when they told me they needed a couple biopsies that things got dicey. 2 more nurses came in to help hold Emmett down. This is the point that Alden announces he needs to go potty. So they all have to wait for us while I take both boys to the bathroom. They wasn't anywhere else for Alden to go so I tried to set him up with Aaron's PDA and a movie facing the corner. At which point the battery dies, I replace it and get the fatal error message and completely wipe out everything on Aaron's PDA. Did I mention he got a new iPod - so he was only minimally angry. So Alden watches the whole thing - which involves 3 of us holding Emmett down and the PA carving out 2 spots on Emmett's tummy. They numbed him first, of course, and the spots weren't huge - but a bit deep and certainly bled a ton all over. Emmett was hysterical the whole time, and Alden was crying too. They put 1 stitch through the middle of one wound but the other wouldn't stop bleeding. So everyone left and I was supposed to hold a gauze pad over it and keep pressure on it for 10 min. That's when Alden announces he has to go potty again. And let me tell you - a bit difficult to hold an almost naked, very upset, baby with a bleeding wound and take a 3 year old to the bathroom. But did I mention I'm super-mom? Eventually Emmett got all stitched up and they tell us to come back in 10 days to get the stitches out and hear the lab results.

I forgot to say what they thought the problem was. Apparently all the spots are hives. And they were mystified as to why they don't itch. But they said he is not allergic to anything external like food or soap, which is what the pediatrician told me too. One guess was that he has a low-grade infection - not enough to make him sick, but that he is allergic to and breaks out in the hives. Their other guess was that he has a disease called mastocytosis - which somehow means that he has extra mast cells floating around that tell his body to break out in hives, even without a trigger. It's a pretty rare childhood disease - but not exactly life threatening or anything, and kids grow out of it. Either of these 2 issues they treat with antihistamines, which is what he's been on already. To shorten this very long story - the labs showed no extra mast cells so the dermatologist recommends giving him antihistamines everyday, having the pediatrician do every test for signs of infection, and coming back in 6 weeks. Did I mention he's been pretty much clear-skinned since the dermatologist appt. with only 3 doses of meds in 2 weeks? So after talking to the pediatrician - we've decided to do... NOTHING. Emmett is better - I can give him meds if he breaks out - he's not uncomfortable when he is broken out - and I am sick and tired of paying $15 co-pays! We're not going to do blood work, chest x-rays, or other invasive tests looking for some phantom infection that may or may not be there but doesn't appear to be hurting him. My pediatrician did recommend me to the Phoenix Children's Hospital where they have a pediatric dermatology group - and said it doesn't hurt to make the appointment. It will take months to get in and if he seems good until then I can cancel.

What a nightmare! It's exhausting just writing about it and I bet not many of you made it through the whole story or even care that much. Emmett sure doesn't. But hey, this is supposed to be our family journal, to save for the boys and all posterity, so I figured I would chronicle this craziness. Too bad I don't have any fun pictures to add.

Alden Turns 3!

Alden's birthday fell on a Monday this year, and unfortunately Aaron & I left Sunday morning for a trip to Washington, DC. Look for a post on that soon. So we celebrated his birthday as a family (the 4 of us) on Saturday and had a fun time. Lunch at Chik-Fil-A was followed by a trip to the library. We happened upon a big training for firefighters from all over Arizona. They had lots of trucks out and were spraying the hoses. Alden & I talked to a fireman for a bit and got our picture taken. He was too scared to pose with the fireman though. We had cupcakes and presents in the afternoon. Yes, those are Star Wars action figures - yes, the same ones we bought him before and posted about. Seems the free toys from McDonalds stick around for years, but when we actually pick out something he likes and spend money on it - they're lost before you know it. To prove the point, we've been looking for the Obe Wan Kenobe for several weeks now. He also got Spiderman goggles, some books, and a Magna Doodle. He didn't care that we celebrated early and didn't seem to mind we missed his actual birthday. Next year we'll have a big party to make up for it. Kids are so great!

Some catching up

So while I've now posted about major events (the ultrasound, our new puppy) I still have a lot of cute random picts I want to share.

Emmett's first major haircut - He now looks like a little boy & not a baby.

Potty training success! While we're not out of the woods yet, Alden is doing very well with using the potty. Of course everytime I think he's doing so well, he has an accident - and it's always while someone else is watching him, of course. But we're getting there.

Alden was in time out for hurting his brother in some way (happens a dozen times a day) but Emmett somehow loves his brother anyway, and sat in time out with him.

One of the rare times I bathed the boys together - just too dangerous usually.

But occassionally they seem to have fun. I am keeping my dream alive of 3 little boys who love each other and are buddies and beat each other only minimally.

As I'm looking through my pictures I'm realizing there are several more big events I need to post about too - please look through all the last weeks posts because sometimes I put one in behind something I posted earlier. Thanks

The Newest Carpenter (non-human)

After mourning the loss of our sweet Brittney dog for an appropriate time - we began looking for a new dog. We were prepared to be picky and were not in a hurry. Aaron's mom was the one doing much of the looking for us, but all of us checked out ads for a couple weeks, and then this weekend we unexpectedly brought home our new dog. I took the boys up to Lakeside to Aaron's parents for conference (while Aaron worked all weekend) and when we got there... suprise, suprise - we met our new dog. We were looking for a fully grown & trained female spaniel - so of course they got us a male puppy. But he is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which was our first choice. And we love him despite his 11 week old puppiness and his male genes. He uses the dog door already and loves to chase the boys around the backyard. I just hope we can get him potty trained long before the baby comes. His name is Lucky and we would love to have visitors if anyone wants to meet him.

They come in Threes

So I'm a little late posting about this, just like with everything the last 4 or 5 months. Aaron came with me to the Dr. and I had my ultrasound... it's another boy! We are excited and not disappointed at all, which is more than I can say for some other family members. But Alden wanted a boy all along, and Emmett has not expressed a preference, so our immediate family is happy. Now the only thing we need to buy before this baby gets here is bunk beds. Which makes Aaron's wallet heave a sigh of relief, because I'd be putting us in the poorhouse if it was a girl. Here are a few pictures for those of you who can "see" the baby in ultrasounds.