Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Scarlett's medical mystery

Sorry for the graphic nature of this photo, but this is what my baby girl had to endure just in order for our allergen specialist to tell us that Scarlett is allergic to nothing (so far) and her anaphylactic attack was caused by an "unknown." Come on. How is a mother supposed to survive with that answer?! I'll explain this photo to you so you know what you're looking at. The letters above the dots indicate two separate panels Scarlett was tested for, "Kids" (airborne allergens), and "Foods" (self explanatory). What the nurse did was take what looked like a large rubber stamp with 10 poky needle bits that had been dipped in commercially generated allergens, and she not so delicately jammed it into Scarlett's back...on two separate occasions...much to Scarlett's dismay. The two bold bumps on her lower back were histamine that they use to make sure that her skin would swell if she actually was allergic to something. They are used as a test. They worked, and established that Scarlett is not currently allergic to any of the common allergens. I guess that should be considered a plus side to this whole mishap, but personally I would almost prefer her to be allergic to something so I know what to keep her away from! Her specialist said that these attacks can happen for unexplained reasons - and they usually just cause the parents some stress. I should have corrected her and said "cause mothers some stress" because I'm pretty sure Joe has already erased the event from his memory. She said they can, or cannot happen again. Great. Something to look forward to for the rest of my life. But that baby girl is just fine. Thank you to all who showed concern through phone calls, emails, brainwaves, blogs, and myspace. We love you all.

2 comments:

Pokolodi said...

Oh sweet baby girl. That picture made me tear up instantly. I can't even imagine how scary this has been for you--and how scary it must have been for Scarlett today. I'm glad she is okay, but of course I understand exactly what you mean about preferring to have a name and cause attached to the incident.
You are all always in our nightly prayers, but especially now. We love you. Keep us posted.
-Poki's Mom
ps
Poki is sending boo-boo healing kisses Scarlett's way.

Mama said...

o my goodness, that's the worst picture ever! i too am glad that she's okay (even though i didn't know anything was wrong until i already knew that she's okay...) but i second the crappiness of not knowing exactly what's wrong. poor baby girl! i'm glad you all survived intact...