She’s sick again. 

School nurse calls me at 10:15 AM Thursday morning, letting me know that Molly has made two visits to the Nurse’s office already.  No temp, sore throat.  She said she sent her back to class and would let me know if anything else changes…

No call.

Until school lets out.  The Director at the after-school care program calls me 15 minutes after school dismissal, now, Miss Molly has a temperature of 101.7.  So, I dash out of work to go get her.  Brought her home, doped her up with Motrin, and she went on with her evening, as if she felt great. 

Bedtime came and went.  1:00 AM… “Mom, my throat hurts”.  I layed down with her until she fell back asleep.  5:30 AM… “Mommy, I need you”.  Again, layed with her.  6:00 AM… She’s ready to get up. 

We went to the doctor with the assumption that she would have a positive strep culture.  Negative.  Instead, it’s determined to just be viral.  Great.  One more thing to beat down and squash her immune system. 

Fortunately, “Superdad” (as Mike calls himself) is home today, so I was able to go to work after the doctor’s appointment.  She tagged along to Mike and Abby’s Dentist appointments, and then home to “rest”. 

Fortunately, we have plans for a cozy, relaxing “family movie night” tonight.  We are going to make our own pizza, then have popcorn and watch “Alvin and the Chipmunks”. 

After over five months of random episodes of vomiting and hives, Molly was finally diagnosed with a dairy/milk allergy. 

Since shortly after her 5th birthday in October, Molly started having episodes of violent vomiting and hives.  The first incident led us to believe it was a nut allergy, as she had a trail mix she had never had before.  Our Pediatrician sent us to a Pediatric Allergist to be tested.  Negative, Negative, Negative.  No nut allergies from the standard tests, and no nut allergy to our nuts we brought to the allergist to test her with.  Thank you and Goodbye Dr. L. 

After a few more episodes, in February, we decided to see a Pediatric Gastroenterologist at the Children’s Hospital.  I needed some confirmation that she didn’t have a tumor in her tiny tummy, or some physical defect causing her such digestive distress.  Dr. R suspected Reflux and prescribed Previcid, with hopes of preventing the vomiting issues she was having.  She went four weeks without a single episode, I thought she was fixed. 

Then came March.  She had worse tummy troubles than ever.  More vomiting.  More pain.  We even took a trip to the emergency room, where she was treated for dehydration.  The next morning, I called Dr. R. (the Pedi-GI) and requested an appointment.  Instead, he called me back that afternoon to schedule an Endoscopy for the following week.  An Endoscopy is the process of scoping down one’s throat with a straw-like tube with a camera to “see” the stomach area, and take biopsies to be sent for lab screening. 

 So, on Wednesday March 12th, we packed Molly up for her out-patient surgery at the Children’s Hospital.  Molly is the bravest five-year-old I’ve ever known.  We were admitted into the Pre-Op area, and she had no fears.  She was a total delight for every doctor and nurse who encountered her.  She changed right into the hospital jammies.  She held her arm right out for the nurse to insert her IV. 

We went by her side as they rolled her into the Operating Room.  The anesthesiologist administered her “sleepy milk” and within ten seconds, she was fast asleep.  I was able to kiss her goodbye, and Mike and I went to the Family Waiting Room, for the longest 25 minutes of my life.  The Family Waiting Room had a great monitor up on the wall with an ID number identifying each child admitted, and what phase of surgery they are in.  I was told to wait for her ID number to turn PURPLE, and that would mean she is out of surgery in recovery.  Her number turned purple 25 minutes later. 

 Dr. R. came into the Family Waiting Room, and escorted us into a small conference room near the Operating Room.  All I was thinking was “Please, stop talking; I want to get to the recovery room so she can wake up to me, not some nurse”.  Dr. R. showed us some pictures he took of her Esophagus, Small Intestine and Stomach.  He explained that anatomically, everything was perfect.  Where it belongs, nothing twisted or torn, no tumors, growths, etc.  That was good news to this paranoid Mommy.  But the bad news is her Small Intestine and Stomach both have “severe allergy damage”.  At this point, he suspected an allergy to something very common in her diet… common enough that we have not been able to trace it to her vomit/hive episodes.  He would call me later in the week when his biopsy results come back from the lab.

Minutes later, we are by Molly’s bedside in the recovery room.  She is still asleep, snoring away.  I had never been so happy to see her.  To rub my hands on her hair and touch her tiny little porcelain face.  I sat down in the rocking chair next to her bed and restlessly flipped through a couple magazines.  Eventually, my tiny little angel started to stir… and when I stood up and kissed her cheek, she grumbled “get off of me” at me.  Yup, she’s back, that’s Molly!

 We left the hospital and went home to recover for the rest of the afternoon.  Being the Google-research queen that I am, I started investigating all of the possible diagnoses I thought I could expect later that week.  I narrowed it down to dairy and wheat, which is called “Celiac’s Disease”. 

That Friday afternoon, I got a phone call from Dr. R.  He is absolutely certain it is dairy.  Her labs were completely negative for Celiac’s, as well as some physical signs that she did not present, but he is certain that it is dairy, based on her daily intake level, and the extent of the damage to her Small Intestine and Stomach.

  So there we have it.  No milk for Molly Moo.  We have since adjusted her diet 100%.  We have all learned that Molly cannot eat anything that a grown up has not read the label TWICE.   I am now label reading at the grocery store determining which brands are safe for Molly.  We’ve had to make some adjustments to some recipes and typical meals for our family. 

 We’ve been at this for about three weeks, and Molly has since had one vomit reaction, and two or three very minor episodes of hives.  We were told to expect it to take three to six weeks for her system to “clear”, but she’s also had two or three “poisonings” (as I like to call them).

  I’m hoping that we make it through April without any vomiting or trips to the Emergency Room. Dr. R. didn’t express much hope that she will outgrow this allergy very soon.  It is more common for children to grow out of them when their reactions start young; however, it took her five years to grow IN to hers.  So, for now, we are going dairy-free indefinitely. 

On the bright side, I am so thankful that it is something so simple to handle, however, I am having such a difficult time trusting anyone else’s judgment and “label reading”.  I am fairly sure that in a matter of time, it will be second nature to everyone, but for now, I am standing my Mommy guard.  That’s what we Mommy-people do!