Sunday, January 21, 2007

Does It Ever End?

I feel like I am drowning in sickies lately.

I'll begin with sicky children...well, Maryn!
After her bout with RSV, we thoguht she was on the mend after a week of breathing treatments and oral steroids. She continued to be extra fussy, and then started complaining of her ear hurting. After a few nights of her waking up just two or three hours after putting her to bed and sleeping withus all night I decided it was time for Greg to do something. He checked out her ears and of course she hd an ear infection. Of course she had an ear infection why else would she say her ear "hut" and cry nonstop for several days. Well she practically does scream nonstop EVERYDAT but that's a whole other post. We got her some antibiotics and started treating her. For sure we were definitely on the feel better side of this mountain we had been climbing...

UNTIL her exzema seemed to be out of control on Friday.

A very happy Maryn, only because I was taking her picture!

She has had terrible exzema since she was born, practically. She has been treated with many different steroid crams, oral steroids, lotions, creams, soaps... Some days it is so bad on her feet that they bleed. It had gotten so bad on her feet that she refused to wear shoes other than flip flops until just about a month ago when the weather has been too chilly to allow her to continue wearing flip flops. On Friday the exzema made its way onto her face where it had never been before. I remember our pediatrician saying once before if gets on her face it may be a food allergy. I hope it wasn't and asked Greg to ask around at the hospital to get others' opinions. He happened to see and allergist, as a patient, and he asked him what he thought. He said usually when it makes it way to the face it is either from mountain cedar or a food allergy. Mountain cedar didn't seem to be at a very high level since the ice storm, but I hoped it was. The top three food allergy that is apparent with exzema are soy, corn, and peanuts. I don't feed her tofu so I figured the soy was not the culprit. Corn and peanuts were definitely red flags to me. Her TOTAL diet(please no judging on my being a good or bad Mom), consists of ramen noodles, hotdogs(on occassion I think she is getting burned out), chips(especially ones made form corn like doritos and funyuns), Chick fil A(she would eat this for every meal if I allowed) and they fry their stuff in PEANUT oil!! I hoped it would clear up. It has and I'm not sure what made it get better. I have been greasing her up at night, she ahsn't eaten ChickfilA since Friday, and her chip intake is down a huge amount. So hopefully it isn't a food allergy to something she SURVIVES on and something I give her so I can SURVIVE! I guess I will contiue to monitor this and it will happily work out for all of us.



Sicky Dishwasher


I woke up the other morning to my dishwasher button lights illuminated. I just assumed my sweet husband had turned it on before coming to bed the night before. I began unloading the "clean" dishes, and half way throught they became more"unclean" than "clean". Maybe Greg hadn't ran the dishwasher that night. I then began unloading my kitchen cupboards and refilling the dishwasher. I turned it on again and walked away. After my mornign errand I returned home to the same light on the dishwasher, which I asumed was the clean light. I looked more closely this time and relaized it was a light I had never seen on before. I couldn't figure out the problem and waited until Greg came home to check things out for me. He became frustrated when Mr. Handyman had no idea what the issue was. I then became frustrated as I unloaded it again and then began handwahsing everything. Not usually a big deal but this day it was a bigger deal.

The next morning he called Sears to see if they had any suggestions on it and said it sounded like the control panel was screwed up. To get soemone out to look at it was 65 bucks just to get tem here and then for them to replace the control panel it would be soemwhere in the ball park of $170. So they were telling us our 2 1/2 year old dishwasher was onthe frits and would cost around 250 smackers to get it working again. WHAT??? We only paid 250 dollars for it brand new. Yes, it was on clearacne because it was the previous year's model but it was NEW for the same price they were saying I needed to pay to fix it.

Well, I was all about handwashing dishes since we would only be living in this house for about seven more months but then I thought, "to sell the house, we get an inspection, it wouldn't pass inspection if evry thing wasn't working". We had to get a new one either now(for me to enjoy) or wait, suffer through 7 months of handwashing every bowl, spoon, cup, pan we use and then buy the next owner a brand spankin' new one to enjoy. I'm not crazy. I decided I wanted to enjoy it before someone else gets to enjoy it. Greg went out looking and found a new one with a "little" imperfection(what I like to call two dents in the front panel) for 200 dollars. I admit I wasn't too keen on the idea of something that wasn't perfect at first, but after much persuading Greg convinced me if the next owner couldn't handle a dent or two in the dishwahser then they would probably not want our house that probably has bigger problems than that.

So now we are the proud new owners of a dishwasher we will be using for half a year.



I'm hoping and praying things will stay healthy around here for awhile because I don't know if my patience, sanity, and my own health can handle anything else.

14 comments:

Bridget said...

Oh man, you could use a trip to Chuy's!! Poor Maryn and poor Mommy. I hope you have a better week!

Anonymous said...

WOW!!!! My younger son Ian has exzema. The Doctor gave me some wonderful cream that works great, and I only give him a bath with Dove soap.
I love you dishwasher,

Anonymous said...

I was just about to say, maybe it isn't food allergies because her face was crystal clear today. I bet it is just regular allergies. I will cross my fingers or she will be living on milk hee hee.

BIG bummer about the dishwasher! Hopefully you will get used to the new one. We definitely need Chuy's this week!!

Anonymous said...

hi. anna (my sis # 4) can put you in touch with our other sis.(who doesn't blog) for a 'miracle cure'for the exzema. Her babies had it bad and she didn't feel comfortable about rubbing steroids into their skin, so she did some research which led her to a simple food recipe concoction that they have everyday & she never used medications! So, if interested, ask anna for her #. -ciao

Anna said...

Hey Angie. As my sister (sista #2) just pointed out I do have some interesting things to try out for eczema. My little guy, Ethan, has it bad, but we have kept it totally under control with some simple techniques and without ever using a steroid cream. He rarely gets outbreaks now and if he does, it is usually just a small patch of skin and clears up soon. First and for most is not to use any lotion...use only cream like Eucerin or Cetaphyl (sp??) and lather her whole body every day, especially after any contact with water (which dries out the skin). Certain foods also can bring on outbreaks for eczema...and each child can be different on which foods bother them...bananas can bring it on, for instance. So, watch what might be trigger foods. Also, introduce flax seed oil into her diet. Buy the refridgerated version of it, but one way I give it to Ethan is actually in yogurt...StoneyField Farms Yo Baby yogurt with fruit and cereal mixed in...it has flax seed oil in it and it tastes good, so you don't have to mix it into any other foods you are preparing...it is nice just to give them a yogurt that already has it in it. You can buy it at Walmart even. If you want the drink concoction recipe, email me. It WILL totally clear it up, but it is hard to have the kids drink it...so try these other things first. Good luck. Eczema can be painful!

Anonymous said...

Eucerin is wonderful. It works great.

Anna said...

Oh, and I forgot...try to use very little soap in the bath and use a mild one like Dove. And keep lathering her in cream. The tops of feet, the back of legs, and across the arms get hit the worst. Sometimes the back and hands as well. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Angie, that stinks. I have been stressed about a milk allergy with my baby but I think he's just got a weak gastroesophogeal sphincter. It was stressful for me to think about completely changing all of our diets or making something special just for one. I hope you find something that soothes her soon.

And I totally hear you on the dishwasher. I personal have a deep rooted loathing of all things Sears and their repair center is a total rip off. We are leaving in six months too and I just want this house to stay together! It's not like potential buyers are going to ooh and ahh over the dishwasher. But at least you don't have to wash by hand for six months!

Anonymous said...

nice deal on the dish washer.Im all about scratch and dent and poen box deals

Jill said...

I'm so sorry Maryn is struggling with so many health issues right now. Grumpy kids are hard to deal with and I'm sure if she's screaming all day long you're about ready to go crazy.

I hope you can figure out if her exzema is a food allergy or not. That's got to be miserable for her and for you.

What a pisser about your dishwashwer woes, but the new one looks great.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the new dishwasher! I would have done the same as you by buying a new one and getting a deal on it as well! We got all the appliances for our new house at the Sear's Outlet Center. So they are mostly scratch and dent but SO minor!

Oh, and spill about your NEW house! I want to see the Elevations and the floorplan!!!

Oh, and I hope you guys all get well soon over there!!

Anonymous said...

The doctors intitally thought one of my twins had food allergies (he had the eczema on his face as well). After lots of testing and a visit to a dermatologist, it turns out he had developed an allergy to bubble bath and J&J's shampoo and body wash (he was just under 2 years old at the time). We began using cetaphil at bath time and eucarin lotion and it cleared right up. He has outgrown his allergy (he's 5 now) and can enjoy bubble baths once again (thank goodness!).
Good luck!

michelle said...

What a major bummer about the health problems. Nothing is worse for me than when Eva is sick. She is a big enough handful even when she is healthy! I hope you figure out what is causing the eczema soon. My middle child had it when he was little, Cetaphil cream cleared it up and he doesn't have it anymore.

bryn said...

all of the excema info is so interesting. my little girl also has it and it is terrible. she gets it on her face and we have had a few bleeding patches on her arms. no fun. we have an appointment with the only pediatric dermatoligist in our state next week. (took 5 months to get the appointment) i will absolutley try the flax seed and so hope it is not a food allergy!