Thursday, October 15, 2015

It's getting chilly outside!

It's the time of the year that scares the snot out of us. Perhaps literally.. Germs are everywhere and Annabelle, for the first time ever, is in preschool. Aka: The Top Germ Exchange. 

Her school is doing a great job at keeping the germs at bay and also communicating with us when someone is sick. We've had to keep Belle at home a few days bc the exposure was just too risky. Annabelle understands. When she does go back to school, she wears a mask. 

The rest of our family is battling our own germs. Let me tell you, living in the same home with a child w/ very little immune system, while you're sick and still parenting = nightmare. AK and I have both been sick the past week or so, all the while Belle is fighting a cold for the third week in a row. (3+ weeks for a cold is common for her immune system) We're practically bathing in clorox and praying the winter germ season is kind to our family.

Annabelle is doing well otherwise. It took her several weeks to recover from her birthday. We still do not know if it was the birthday cake, exposure to another food or something she ingested in general - but her immune system reacted, and violently. She steadily lost weight and we've struggled for her to put it back on. She's experiencing allergic reactions more often now than she has in years. (allergic reactions being completely outside of the disease itself). You can tell that Annabelle isn't well. She complains of her tummy hurting almost daily but we don't know what to do to help her. We cannot go back on medications that we know would help her because we are still in the middle of a food trial.

While we are not 'excited' to go back to Cincinnati Children's Hospital in a month, as a parent, I am relieved that we will gain another look into how Annabelle is progressing. It worries me when she doesn't have medical care but every 16wks. She's NEVER gone that long between visits before. But anything more frequent just isn't possible for our family. Annabelle is strong and doing so well. I haven't told her that Cincinnati is upcoming. We are going to get thru Halloween and have some more fun and then we will begin talking to her about it. She's getting older and wiser with each visit. Her little body is consumed with fears and sometimes realistic expectations about the upcoming hell. It's hard to soothe those worries in a 4year old baby.. as a parent, learning how to coach her thru them and talk to her on a level she will understand at that time, is so difficult and ever-changing. Meanwhile, we laugh, play, learn and have fun. Annabelle is dancing and doing gymnastics and loves every minute of it. She is a walking miracle and completely blessed by the outpouring prayers from all of you, thank you so very much, for every minute of prayer in which you share my baby girls name.

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