The following weeks after we found out what Dean was allergic to were intense. The first week, we had to give him Benadryl 5 out of 7 days because he had some sort of minor allergic reaction (hives) despite our elimination of the known allergens. Four of those times, daycare called me in the middle of the work day. Whenever I saw its number pop up on my phone, my stomach dropped because I thought they were calling 911 again. I’m in meetings about 6 hours a day and am often running them or presenting. I didn’t know whether to drop everything and step out or if they were calling about random stuff, Dean fell and hit his head but he’s OK, etc. I finally had to tell them to call my work cell for emergencies only, like he’s having a severe reaction, and to call my desk phone for all other issues.

Of course, when your kid is living off of Benadryl, you think, “Are their other things he’s allergic to that we just don’t know about still?” This is ridiculous! I started to keep a diary of what he ate and symptoms to see if there were any patterns. After that, we religiously introduced only one new food at a time, testing it 4 full days, before we introduced the next item.

I also called the allergist with lots of questions, mainly to gage if administering Benadryl 5 times during the course of a week was just what life was going to be like now or if this was unusual. She was anything but helpful. She was condescending and rude and was practically yelling at me on the phone. I almost hung up on her at one point (of course, there would have been some words said there too!). She could have cared less that I was concerned, worried, and confused. I told Matt that step one was to find a new allergist.

It felt good, however, to make some decisions and start putting things into motion over the next few weeks. Continue reading →