Tomorrow is our big appointment with Cutie Pie's allergist. He is such a nice man - young, not bad looking, smart, and has never made me feel crazy. My Little Man has struggled with food allergies since he was three months old, and praise God our relationship with the allergist has been pretty distant the last year or so. But while we were in the thick of it we got to know the good doctor fairly well. Although he isn't associated directly with the local Children's Hospital and isn't really a PEDIATRIC allergist, he used to be a pediatrician so I'll take it! He's great with the kids. I just cannot sing his praises loud enough.
Anywhoo, I am a nervous wreck. You would think I'm taking her for surgery or to be fed to the wolves tomorrow, when in all reality all I want is a diagnosis. And ideally I'd like for HIM to come up with it instead of breaking out the copies of medical journal articles I have printed and ready to take with in the morning. I know there is at least one other local mom with an FPIES child who has seen our allergist so I'm hoping that means it at least isn't completely foreign to him. But from what I understand, since FPIES is so rare it isn't uncommon for doctors to be unfamiliar with it. In all honestly, there are days I feel like Cutie Pie deserves a role on the show House. They are always coming up with off the wall diagnosis for patients! I think FPIES would make a great medical mystery for that show actually. Projectile vomiting, bloody diarrhea, cute babies.... sounds like good TV to me!
Today as Cutie Pie struggled with her 10th case of the hiccups for the day I began to think about how much my hatred of FPIES has evolved over the last two months. Those first few weeks were mostly marked by confusion and disbelief. I didn't really understand what the big deal was - yeah, so she can't tolerate rice. So what? It's just rice. There are plenty of other foods out there for her. Then she started having issues with pears. Dang you FPIES, but at least pears are fairly easy to avoid. Then we started a food journal and started trialing oatmeal. Fail. Then prunes. Fail. Then I started to notice a relationship between symptoms and me eating peas and onions. And maybe corn. Fast forward to today and I am PISSED at this stupid FPIES. It is robbing my beautiful Cutie Pie of a "normal" infancy. And it is robbing me of some of my favorite foods since I am still breastfeeding! Now I am desperate for a diagnosis. I want to know I am directing my anger and frustration and depression at something I can for sure call by name.
So tomorrow me, my Cutie Pie, and our huge notebook filled with details about every bite of food, every rash, every mucus filled diaper will march into that office and ask for a diagnosis. Wish us luck!
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