Our October review

We have been so very busy over the last month my head is spinning slightly but we are committed to making the most of any period of good health so I'm not complaining too much!

Since my last post we've been back to Yorkhill for an allergy clinic where we had a consult with a Erin's nice Immunologist who did some further testing. In the few weeks leading up to the appointment Erin started to show mild reactions to tomatoes, despite my best efforts to ignore them and hope they stopped happening, each reaction was getting progressivly worse so this was added to the list. So she was tested for celery, cinnamon and tomatoes. The testing itself was pretty stressfree, play therapy is hopefully helping, she was quite happy for the nurse to draw on her arms and only squeaked a little when they scratch tested. As Erin likes to be awkward the results all came back negative, which is good but not really very helpful as her reactions have indicated these are 'new' allergens to her system. So the plan is to add tomatoes to the banned list for 6 months, hopefully if we can stop her having multiple and regular reactions her immune system might calm down again and 'get over' its current hypersensitive state. After this time we will try a tomato challenge in hospital to see if things have improved. I'm sure I don't need to mention just how difficult it is to find things she can eat now......

The current banned list stands at;

• Nuts
• Beans
• Peas
• Lentils
• Sesame seeds
• Mustard seeds
• Kiwi fruit
• Nutmeg
• Tomatoes

All a little depressing, however the nice consultant has given us some hope. The fact she has been having so many reactions to so many things is scary but he feels reassured that the reactions have all been brought under control by Piriton and none have become anaphalactic so we should try and take comfort in this fact and relax about future reactions as they will (most likely) be easy to treat as well. This has helped me a lot, the airborn reaction was freaking me out but what he says makes sense. We still don't know why she took that reaction in the garden centre but he says we shouldn't stay away from places 'just in case' but rather just make sure we have all appropriate meds with us (alway ; )) He refered to her as complex lol he doesn't know the half of it!

Also this month, Erin became a big cousin! She is no longer the baby of the family as my sister had a beautiful baby girl on the 3rd October. Baby Darcy is tiny but doing well and Erin likes to watch her from a safe distance and copy baby related tasks with her doll.

tiny new toes

Darcy was a little jaundiced (arrrrh) after 3 weeks so she had bloods done to double check but her levels were all fine, thankfully!

Erin has been busy socialising. She was at her friends birthday party, twins Sophie and Kiera were turning 4 and invited her to a dancing party which she loved! She was the youngest there but overcame her initial nerves to dance the afternoon away.

We had a lovely day with some of our Team Leeds Little Livers family in Penrith as well. The kids had a ball playing in a soft play and outdoor park. Erin sang 'going to see phoebe and phoebemummy' all the way to the Cumbria! I find our meet ups a huge comfort as well as lots of fun for the kids, I still can't quite believe how connected you can feel to people you hardly know but who have walked in you shoes, I'm very greatful for their support and friendship.

3 special friends

These guys are lots of fun/mischief, L-R Erin, Phoebe, Olivia and Johan

The following weekend we went to a CLDF bowling day and Erin had a go at 10 pin bowling.  I think she most enjoyed getting to wear the shoes.....We had lots of fun and she even got a strike! We met some amazing kids and families, a teenager called Demi and her sister were patricular favourites with Erin, such lovely girls.  Also an 18 year old Kasai only BA patient called Graeme was very sweet, he looks the picture of health and clearly has a bright future ahead of him, Erin was a bit smitten. It always gives me hope when we meet these families, I wonder if their experiences have made them into the thoughtful, kind, understanding kids they are?

We've been continuing the play therapy tips we got in Yorkhill and they seem to be helping! We went for our flu jags last week and Erin was a super duper star. She barely squeaked when she got her jag, I was very impressed with her. I'd explained we were going to the doctors and he was going to give Mummy, Erin and Eeyore a little jag but if we were very brave we might get a sticker. She sang 'going to the doctors, going to the doctors......' all the way there. She watched me get my jag first, got hers then immediately told the doctor to give Eeyore his. No problems. We'll see if similar tactics help next week when she goes for blood in Yorkhill......

We are just back from a weekend away in Pitlochry with my parents and niece and nephew. I'll let the pictures show how much fun we had at the Enchanted Forest event, Halloween parade and Autumn leafy walks extravaganza lol.

Some favourite Erinisms to make you smile;
'scuse me - when she burps, sneezes or wants you to move over, always in a very sweet voice
'mon  - in her best glaswegian accent when she wants you to follow her
Oh noooo! - also in a fairly broad accent normally followed by a story involving a baby animal/cup/toy/phone/remote control having lost its mummy and daddy, Dora the explorer has a lot to answer for.
Help help pease pease 'escue me - whilst lying on the couch/bed/floor to alert you that she is lost and needing rescued

Her imagination is starting to run wild, she wakes up most morning singing songs and telling stories.  She loves to bake cakes, draw pictures for daddy and play hide and seek. Hide and seek pretty much involves her hiding by putting her hands over her eyes but she is getting the hang of it slowly. I know I'm a little (!) biased but she really is one of the happiest little girls I know, a stark contast to where she was at this time 2 years ago.

*Whispers* she has also started to sleep through the night far more often, I would almost call it regularly, we must not speak of it at all incase we jinks it but sleep is sooooooo good we've missed it lots.

We had a family photo shoot done last month and there are some of the shots, isn't she a cute model?