Anyone dealing with allergies will know and appreciate the challenges you face. Every single day is a negotiation of a multitude of situations that you need to steer your little one through, to get to the end of the day whilst staying safe.
It’s hard, emotional and can get to you when you least expect it.
We’ve been dealing with Callum’s situation for quite a while now, and we’re used to the unknown and learning how to deal with reactions, figuring out the huge collection of drugs that keep him going, and more.
We’ve gone through massive reactions that have seen him hospitalised for days.
We’ve battled repeated pneumonia.
And there’s been so much more!
My last big melt down over it all was the day before his 4th birthday. The magnitude of what he goes through, and what we go through as a family hit hard.
Why am I looking back on all this?
Callum had a regular check up with his consultant just before Easter. It was nothing out of the ordinary. A usual appointment to check his weight, see how well we were controlling his asthma and eczema. And also discuss his many allergies and how we’re managing his diet.
But, it didn’t stop here.
For the past year, a number of lymph nodes have been continuing to get larger, along with Callum not really putting any weight on, and also remaining extremely lethargic. His diet is at optimum level, his bloods regularly come back saying his levels across the board are exactly where they should be.
Good to know my Nutritional Therapist training is working!
But ongoing lymph node enlargement is not a good sign, especially when one of them is 1cm or larger, and at least 1 other is 0.5cm or larger.
It caused sufficient concern with the consultant for him to organise bloods and scans to determine what has been going on.
For the past 3 weeks we have had this hanging over our heads, and if truth be told, I’ve really struggled with it.
I’m not sleeping, and I’m focusing on my work, studies and the final bits to organise for our upcoming wedding to keep my mind off it all.
We got the blood tests results back yesterday morning, and thankfully they’re not showing anything sinister (which is what we were warned of and why I’ve been so worried), but it’s still thrown a few questions up and we're not out of the woods yet. A scan in a weeks’ time should hopefully provide us with more information.
I’ve grilled our GP, and also Callum’s consultant, and they’ve both confirmed in principal that the bloods seem ok, but still have unanswered questions that need addressing.
The bloods also threw up that Callum’s vitamin D levels are a little lower than normal, which is puzzling as his diet is built around ensuring he gets enough of everything due to him having so many restrictions. There is a good chance his body isn’t absorbing vitamin D, so this needs to be looked into as well.
At the moment this mummy is plodding on, emotional and worried. And throughout all of this, Callum in his usual brave and amazing self, just continues to be smiling, happy and adjusting accordingly. His moods have become stronger and harder to deal with at times, but when in constant discomfort, it’s understandable that he’s going to be a little mad at the world and needs to let it go.
The kid amazes me on a daily basis, he always has done, but this really does take it to new levels.
18 severe allergies, 10 slightly less so, severe eczema and asthma, hayfever, hypermobility, and now god knows what this is too.
I think this brave soldier needs a bit of a break now, don’t you?
What do you all do to cope? Any tips?
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