Diagnosis

So, we have been dealing with Charlie's CONSTANT runny nose, coughing, etc for a long time now. We hardly ever go to the doctor with it, because it hardly ever seems like a true bacterial infection and I don't want him to overdose on antibiotics (I think he's had antibiotics 2-4 times in his entire life). Because it never seems to go away, even with Zyrtec and Delsym every night, we went and did this: Yes, we went to an allergist today to find out what might be wrong. As it turns out, he inherited my egg and dairy allergies (I have long since outgrown mine, and we think he will also). For now, this means more daily medication, strict monitoring of food (how do you eat without consuming milk or eggs somehow?!?) and regular visits to the allergist. They also diagnosed him with asthma, so he has an inhaler to use every night and also as-needed. The scary thing is that they prescribed an Epi-Pen in case things get bad and he has a severe anaphylactic reaction. Poor baby :(

The allergist's office is really nice with lots of neat things to play with. They also have a DVD player in every room with several movie choices, and each room has its own theme - ours was Sports, so we had balls and lots of other sports toys. However, this only lasts so long with a 19-month-old, and we were there a total of about 3.5 hours. Ugh! An hour of that time included trying to keep him from bumping or scratching his back in any way - do you know how hard that is? I couldn't touch his back, so I had to pick him up carefully and chase him around without letting him bump into anything. I was sweating by the time we left, and my arms are still tired! He did really love these rocking boat things (they also have a really cool built-in airplane the kids can climb through and pretend to fly).
I just looked up those boats, and here they are:


http://www.vermontstore.com/subcategory.php?cat=7&subcat=23

Early birthday present, anyone??? ;)