I'm too tired to title this one. Allergies again.

We had a wonderful anniversary, and continued the celebration on Saturday. The Saturday afternoon, Elena broke out with a few hives on her face and one of her cheeks was very red. I thought it might be a reaction to my new deodorant, so I gave her some Benedryl and bathed and changed. She was fine the rest of the evening.

Then, Sunday morning, she got the worst case of hives I've ever seen. They covered her face, arms and legs, and swelled up until they had merged into the size of my fist. She was one giant head to toe hive. I gave her Benedryl, prayed, got the epi pen ready and watched closely for breathing issues. Thank God, she was laughing and babbling the whole time, and responded quickly to the Benedryl.

We took her into Urgent Care and she was given prednisone and told to keep up the Benedryl every six hours for the next day or two. She was completely cleared up and I hoped that the meds would keep her from any more reactions while I racked my brain trying figure out what could be causing it. No changes in detergent or anything. She still isn't eating solids, although both days she managed to grab part of a chip. Could all of this really be from a fragment of a plain potato chip??? (Yes, it could, although I don't really think it is.) Wait! She had also gotten a hold of a chocolate wrapper that had had nuts in it and put it in her mouth...

Three hours after her second dose of Benedryl, she broke out again. It was only on her arm, not her whole body, but they continued to grow and swell until it was one huge hive covering most of her arm. The doc said that since it was too early for more Benedryl and the prednisone hadn't helped to head to the ER. We were there for several hours, and the hives didn't die down for more than four hours. Elena was incredibly good natured through it all, although she protested a few times that I didn't let her chew on her socks. :)

It was after 11:00 PM when we got home. Carlos had stayed with Ariana and Joel while my SIL and I went with Bittykins to the ER. After we dropped SIL off, Elena missed the company and started crying and screaming. You know my feelings on CIO under any circumstances, let alone when my poor baby has spent most of the day at the ER. At the same time, we were exhausted and I really wanted to get home before midnight.

I tried talking and singing and turning her light on. The screams just intensified. I stopped to comfort her, but as soon as I put her back in her seat she screamed again, and it sounded like she was going to throw up. We finally made it home, and of course, when I gave her her dose of meds she immediately vomited everything up. Knowing that vomiting can be an allergic reaction as well made me nervous, but I was 99% sure that it was just from the combination of crying and meds.

She hasn't slept great, although she is thankfully asleep right now. Ariana and Joel were very reproachful at being left behind when their beloved Super Baby was in trouble. They had a serious discussion on the possibilities of following us to the hospital in another car, but Ariana pointed out that it didn't have car seats. They deliberated and decided the best option was to walk to the hospital. Right now, Joelito is sleeping with his arm around Elena. They love their little sister!

I'm waiting for the doctor's office to open so that I can update him on everything and request a referral to our allergist for testing. I know of a lot of friends whose peds refused to refer babies under a year for testing, but given our family history and the severity of her reaction, I think I can talk ours into it. If I have to, I'd switch to Ariana and Joel's ped (if we can do that with the vax issues). Oy. Anyway, I'm hopeful that he'll agree to it without any problems.

So, another round of testing, probably elimination diets. Heh--I'm afraid to eat anything today for fear that it will trigger another reaction. I had been thinking that we were probably being pretty silly for delaying solids so long, but if the reaction was from something in my milk, can you imagine how much worse it might have been if she had ingested it directly? I don't want to (shudders). Let's hope that today does not include any reactions!