Sunday Funday!

Julia and I headed off to Red Rock this morning with my cousin Shawn and her two girls, McKayla and Emma. It was raining of course, but we made the best of it!

On the way home Emma had had enough of being in the car and was letting us all know about it! Julia decided putting her jacket on her head was the best way to deal with it.

After our Red Rock adventure we decided to watch a movie that we got at American Girl. Julia thought her new horses needed a front row seat!

After the show we headed to another mall just to get out of the hotel for a while! We found somewhere to eat!

 Julia loves candles so I got her these three before dinner and she was so excited!

I got a surprise deliver to the hotel from my good friend's the Simmon's! It was so sweet!!

Julia has been sleeping on a blow up bed next to mine in the bedroom. I went to check on her tonight and this is what I found. All comfy in my bed, her water on the nightstand and everything. Now, the Mommy question do I try to move her or do I just sleep on the blowup bed!

We are supposed to be at the hospital at 9 tomorrow. I am hoping to learn about what the tests from last week mean and what we are doing now!

Saturday Fun

We decided to take it easy today and have some fun. We slept until 9, ate some breakfast and then headed over to the mall to get some shopping done. My Aunt Pat met us there. It was great to see her and we had a fun day. We started the day at the Disney Store where we we saw all things princess! We picked up a lot of fun things for the girls.

After the Disney store we decided to have lunch. We ate at a restaurant called The White Chocolate Grill and it was great. I loved the option for the sides for kids, bananas, avocado slices or carrots and ranch! Awesome! I had an Ahi salad and it was yummy.

We did have to make a quick stop at the potty and on the way back to the store Julia spotted this little ride on horse. Of course, we had to ride it.

 After lunch we headed to the American Girl store and shopped till we dropped!

Julia in the Saige balloon, take two. She is holding a book Pat found and she loves it. It is all about horses and has a lot of fun photos.

 Here is Pat reading to Julia while I was checking out.

I think Jeff was a little worried about our shopping spree. I spotted this on the counter and told him not to worry!

We may or may not have made something for Natalie's birthday at Build-A-Bear. Here is Julia helping out.

And if you haven't heard, it is raining here, a lot. This is what we got today, along with some pea sized hail.

And of course we can't have a night without hives. Poor Julia. We will have to see what the doc says about that! I don't understand, but hives are so hard to get on camera!

Julia loves cows and found this sign for her Pa Pa at Target tonight. In her words she said it was hilarious!

Day Three at NJH

I thought I should start with a couple of photos from last night. Julia was so wiped out I went in to wake her up from a nap and she told me to leave her alone!

We did make it up and swam for a little bit before we had dinner.

This morning we got to NJH at 7:45. They put numbing cream on her arms to prep for the blood draw later that day. She gets to put stickers on a chart every time she gets done with doing her "work". Of course she asked for a horse on her chart.

The first thing we did was her asthma test. It was called a methacholine asthma test. They start with giving her a low dose of a known irritant and see how much she has to have before she has a reaction. It only took three doses before her heart rate shot up, she started coughing and her breath sounds weren't normal. We haven't heard how we are going to treat it best on a daily basis, but information is good.

After the asthma test it was time for her blood draw. They needed eight vials and after trying to get them for a while her vein collapsed due to dehydration. So, they got as many as they could and we might have to give more on Monday. We also got a lot of Gatorade today. 

Next on the not fun list was the skin prick test. This was for environmental's and there was a lot of them. Each dot on her back represents a prick. The ones that she was positive to that the nurse told me was cats, horses, dogs, 2 different molds, 2 different weeds and house dust. The nurse said that there might be more but the doc needed to see the results.

After the skin prick it was time for the soak and seal. First, she gets to sit in a tub for 20 minutes, everything gets to be wet so they drape her in a towel. This is her new Tianna she got from the prize closet.

 Then it was time for the wrap. They covered her in cream and steriod where she had breakouts. After that came a pair of wet pj's and wet socks on her hands and feet. The last layer was dry pj's and socks. They then wrapped her head with wet gauze because she tends to have break outs on her neck, behind her ears and at her hair line. I know it is a little strange looking, but it works great. Their outcomes are amazing. She was to keep this on for 2 hours. I told her she looked like a unicorn.

Her skin felt so good she drifted off to sleep!

When we got back to the hotel our friends Cassidy and Bob and their kids had sent an amazing care package to her! It was all things horses and she was in love!

We got the puzzle together!

And took the horses swimming and in the shower with us. Shawn and her girls came to see us tonight and it was nice to hang out! That's Emma in the shower with Julia.

We have a break until Monday where we will learn what all the test mean and what to do next! I think we are going to try and have some fun this weekend!

Day two at NJH

We just got back from the hospital. This morning we met with a psychologist, where we met and gave her a background. I also attended a parent meeting while Julia went to an art therapy class. I got to meet other parents who were dealing with some of the same things I am. We also learned about some of the laws regarding education and the rights kids with chronic conditions have. It was very informative and brought up a lot of things I hadn't even considered. After the meeting we did our first round of skin prick testing. The tested for food and the only one that came up was peanuts. Thank heavens.

Here is a photo of Julia hanging out at the hospital yesterday.

Julia's skin prick test results...hmmm....wonder where the peanut is.....

Tomorrow we are starting bright and early at 7:45 with a blood draw for a bunch of blood tests. After that we are headed for a soak and seal bath treatment to help with eczema. After that we will be heading to the asthma test. After the asthma test we will have lunch and then end the day with another round of skin prick tests, this time they will test for environmental. They are confident that there is something in her environment that she is allergic to that is causing all the itching. I hope we find it!

Day one at NJH

We checked into the hospital at 8:30. They took Julia's vitals and we were shown to a room.We spoke with our nurse who took a short history, gave us a tour of the unit and just showed us how things worked. Shortly after that we met with two child life specialists that are there to help Julia with her procedures. Right before lunch we met with our first doctor. He took a complete medical history for about an hour. He also did a complete physical examination. We had lunch and then met with our second doctor. We discussed everything and together decided that the goals of this appointment were to:

1. Make Julia's quality of life the best it can be by:
    - Understanding her allergies (both food and environmental) and coming up with a plan
    - Testing her immune system for any deficincies
    - Determining the severity of her asthma
    - Controlling her eczema
2. Leave with her on as few as medications as possible.

After the doctors left Julia and I attended an educational meeting about eczema. It was very informative and I learned a lot. Some of my take aways were:
   1. It is usually genetic and is found in families where hay fever, asthma, allergies and food allergies exist. While the exact cause is unknown, it is thought to be a malfunction in the immune system. It is not curable and will have to be dealt with her entire life.
   2. We learned about things we could do to make the itching and rash better.
   3. And last, but not least, we learned about treatment and therapies.

After the meeting we were dismissed for the night and Julia fell asleep on the ride home. Here is what is coming up tomorrow and the following days.

1. Skin prick testing for food and environmental allergies.
2. Blood for allergies and other things
3. Food challenges, including a contact and inhaling test with peanuts.
4. An asthma test that induces an "attack" with medicine among people with asthma and shows if the inhaler works.
5. A sleep specialist.
6. An appointment with a nutritionist.
7. An appointment with a psychiatrist on dealing with the stress of chronic conditions like food allergies and asthma.

So far so good! We are just beat and I am afraid that Julia is already bored! I am hoping that we can get all this done quick and be home soon! Thanks again for all the love and support!