Peanut Challenge

Boy was that interesting!

We arrived at the dr's office at 9am, with a jar of all natural peanut butter, an extra change of clothes, some washable toys, and a large supply of wipes. We knew that we would be there at least 2 hours, and were as prepared as we could be!

After stripping Brylie down to her diaper, we began by putting some peanut butter on the under side of her forearm. She talked about it for quite awhile, and smeared it all over (herself and the other items in the room, including the waiting chairs, exam table, and floor). After 20 mins, the nurse came in to wipe it off and "read" it -- nothing. So on to the next step we go.

This time we put it all over her right cheek. Again, she wasn't very fond of it, and it must have itched a bit because it wasn't long and she was taking a swipe with her fist. We were able to entertain her for quite awhile with one of Peyton's practice golf balls -- washable, not likely to damage anything, fun for her. She did rub it into the peanut butter though. Before this 20 mins was up, her eyes started to get red and the rest of her got pale. Okay, we thought, maybe she's just getting tired. When the timer went off, the nurse came in to wipe it off and read it -- nothing. Next.......

Next step was to smear it on her mouth, lips, and chin. No longer was she going to tolerate being stuffed up in the little exam room, so we roamed the halls. Grandma was working in the adjacent hall so we visited her, and climbed up and down the scales. Boy did we get funny looks -- those poor people probably thought I took my baby out in nothing but a diaper, and with a horribly messy face! lol........anyway, mid session, her cheek, which hadn't shown any reaction, started to get very blotchy and even had some bumps. Ahhhhh, finally we see something. When time was up and stuff wiped off, we found swollen lips and a flaming chin. Doc came in, said we were done, that's a positive reaction.

So we got her cleaned up and dressed. Doc comes in to visit with us, she'll need to go back when she's 3 to retest (just to be sure it wasn't ultra sensitive skin (I know it's not, but ya know) and to test for reactions to tree nuts (peanut allergy and tree nut allergies often go hand in hand). We spoke about avoiding foods that could possibly be cross contaminated, etc. Just as we were getting ready to leave, she bursts out crying, and I could tell immediately her stomach was hurting. She hadn't gotten much in her mouth, just what little she could reach with her tongue. While it wasn't enough to have a severe reaction, it was enough to upset her tummy. We had to stay a little longer while she nursed (to dilute the peanut butter), and then we were free to go.

I'm so glad that we didn't have to do the next couple steps - ingestion, as she would've had a violent reaction again I'm sure. By the time it was all said and done she was so exhausted, poor thing.

So, we do know that she is indeed allergic to peanuts, and probably tree nuts (both of which we'll avoid). This means reading EVERY label EVERY time, inquiring while eating out, and avoid any foods that have been prepared by folks who haven't checked and/or aren't aware of what they've used. We've gotten along ok so far. It does make it very difficult come potluck time at church. I'll probably be bringing her meal separately so we don't have to guess. But what scares me most is her future.

*I know, God wants me to work on my control issues*

I am going to have to trust her teachers, family members, parents of friends, and many others, to be careful and watch what they give out. I've had personal experience where Peyton was given eggs (which he is allergic to) when I not only wrote on his registration that he was allergic to, but also verbally expressed that information. I saw another case where a little gal was given peanuts directly at a cooking class, when the teacher knew (but forgot) that she's allergic. Fortunately Peyton's allergy isn't horribly severe, and at the most will cause many trips to the bathroom, but peanut allergies are LIFE THREATENING!!! I'm amazed at the people that don't understand the severity. How on earth am I not supposed to hover constantly? Birthday parties, school lunches, treats, family gatherings............it stresses me out to think about it.

Anyway, we'll be heading to Jazlyn's first tball practice here in a bit, and I'm hoping to grab some pictures (always so funny to watch!). Happy Monday!

I know, I know........

it's been awhile.......but we've been busy! lol

Before I get into what we've been doing, I have an update on my grandpa, and another prayer request for a friend.

Grandpa is doing well! All of the lymph nodes came back without cancer, and his scans came back great as well! He went back for a repeat scan on Friday (since the cancer had grown so rapidly before) which all came back clear!!! They did decide to go ahead and do some radiation just to be on the safe side. He will get 20 treatments - 5 days a week for 4 weeks. We are so, so grateful to all of you that have prayed for him!!! God does hear us all!!!

Ironically when I sent out my prayer request for Grandpa, I got an email back from a dear friend of mine. Without going into too many details (not sure how much she'd like me to share), she is in great need of our prayers as well. She has two lumps in her neck (thyroid) that are growing rapidly. She had some tests done last week and they showed that the lumps are cold, which means they could have cancer. My friend is only 30 years old, with a husband and two beautiful girls 5 and 7 months. This is not fair!!! She has been through so much in her life, and she never lets it beat her down -- she's such an inspiration!!! She will meet tomorrow with a surgeon to make arrangements about removing the lumps, and then go from there. Please, please pray for her and her family.

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As for what we've been up to! May is generally a busy month for us, but seems to be more so this year!!! Last time I posted an "update" I just had time to post slide shows of Peyton's birthday party and Jazlyn's dance recital. The next week allergies hit the Fenner household and no one has gotten much sleep since. We're just now starting to head out of it all.

That Thursday Jazlyn had her graduation from Judi's Preschool! It's so sad! I can't believe she'll be entering Kindergarten next year :( and all day too! I can't imagine what it's going to be like to have the older two gone all day. Anyway, off of my pity party. Here is the graduate herself:


Right after her program we headed out of town to Salina, to capture my little brother proposing to his girlfriend! I played paparazzi and hid in the trees to snap some pictures, then acted like we just met them at the park to stretch our legs and take a break, hehe! The kids had fun feeding the geese and ducks in the park's pond:


And there was even a little family swimming around:

And some new ones waiting to hatch:


Then we headed on to McPherson. Friday we spent the day enjoying the All School's Day/May Day's festivities! We attended a huge parade (by our standards anyway, we're used to 10 min ones here!):


The kids enjoyed meeting with Smokey the Bear and the fire dog:



They sat on Granny's lap for most of the parade:


Then after lunch we visited the petting zoo:


Peyton got to ride a camel (Jazlyn was too scared):


And the older two played on a huge blow-up obstacle course, which, I think, they could've done ALL DAY!!!



Then Friday evening I had the pleasure of taking David and Ashley's engagement portraits! Family if you'd like to see them, just let me know :)

Saturday was busy busy! Mike, Brylie, and I went to Salina for the day to celebrate and attend Ashley's graduation from nursing school and her pinning ceremony. It was wonderful to meet her family and spend some time with my parents and brothers! Peyton and Jazlyn stayed in McPherson with Granny and Papa and attended the carnival, riding rides, etc. Boy did we have a lot to hear about when we got back!

Sunday we got to Salina in time to eat lunch with my parents, David and Ashley, and my uncle and his family (it was their first time to see Brylie!!!). Then we headed home. We did stop in Hays so that I could do some shopping at Fashion Bug, and I'm so glad we did!!! While I was shopping, Mike took the kids to walk around and ran into my friend that I mentioned above! I hadn't seen her for 6 years, and hadn't ever met her girls! I was so glad to see her, and give her hugs!!! It made the entire (long) trip back home sooooo worth it!!!

This last week was pretty much spent just trying to recover from everything. Monday was Peyton's well child visit. He's now 54" and 82 pounds -- at the edge of or off the chart for both, but at least he's proportionate! We did have to put him back on Singulair to try to tame his allergies. They were even keeping him up at night, which meant a very grumpy boy the next day. He's improved a great deal already!

Here are a couple of other misc pics from recently...

The girls reading Jazlyn's Highlights magazine:
Brylie and Grandpa in their overalls:


This is a busy week as well, starting with Brylie getting her peanut butter bath tomorrow (also known as a peanut challenge). That will take at least 2 hours, sitting in an exam room, with a child covered in peanut butter. Wish me luck. Then Jazlyn's got her first t-ball practice and Peyton's got 4H. Tuesday Peyton's class will take their end of the year field trip to a nearby dairy farm, and Thursday is the last day of school! Then we've got about a week before the summer rush starts.........funny, I don't remember summer being this busy! lol

Hope you enjoyed the update and pictures. I'm heading to bed, I'm pooped!

Prayer request.....

Please, if you have ANY relationship with the Lord, please pray that His will be done with my Grandpa.

He just got out of surgery to remove a lump in his neck. The lump ended up being in his saliva gland, and it was malignant. They also had to remove some of his lymph nodes.

He's not into recovery yet, so they haven't begun to discuss radiation or chemo or anything yet. Gpa had colon cancer about 10 years ago and beat it, but did have some skin cancer removed from his ear area within the last year. I'm not sure he's willing to fight this.

Simply not enough time...........

.......in the day to get everything done (much less blog about it too!!!).

So until I can grab some time, here are a couple of slide shows of Peyton's parties and Jazlyn's recital (she's the tallest one)! Enjoy!

On the mend, busy week, and a scrapbook page....

Little Miss Brylie's ankle is much better! It's been about a week now since she started walking on it again, and thank goodness!!! She was NOT a happy camper when she was not mobile! It seems to be healing fine (she still occasionally tells us "is owe" but less and less every day).

Brylie also had a visit with the allergist Monday to see about her peanut reaction. After going through the events and family food allergies, the Dr decided to do the scratch test (actually little tiny injections of substances) for wheat (in case it was the bread), peanuts, eggs (family history), milk, and rice (suspicions). The only one of those that came back positive was eggs. Dr decided that we should go ahead and do a blood allergy test for the peanuts, as sometimes it just doesn't react on the scratch test. If the blood test comes back negative we have two choices - we can either say we know she's allergic based on her reaction and treat it as such, or we can do a peanut butter bath, which is quite literally smothering peanut butter on her skin. We have yet to find out about the blood test, but after coming home we remembered that we did a peanut butter bath of sorts (we put a dab on her cheek and waited 15 mins) and it did react. He sent us home with a prescription for an EpiPen Jr and taught us how to use them (really quite simple but there are specific steps to take). If we ever have to use one, we're to take her to the ER immediately. Reactions to peanuts can be so severe and life threatening.........we both look at the labels on every food now, and are starting to get used to asking for allergy lists, etc., when eating out. I'm already dreading things like preschool and school snacks, birthday parties, sleep overs (as in her at someone else's) because I'll have to trust that they monitor everything. I know it's partly the control freak in me, and partly the protective mother.

This next week is crazy busy for us. We have our normal activities in addition to a couple of photo shoots (weather permitting), 2 birthday parties for Peyton, and dance recital rehearsal and two performances. It's going to a busy, but fun, week!!! Last weekend the girls had their photos taken in their dance costumes, but I had to take Jazlyn out afterward and get some of my own:

And here's a recent scrapbook page:

The drama...........

........never ends at our house!

But first some other news/pics/happenings!

I just realized that I hadn't posted pics of our April Fool's foods yet!
We started off the day with bfast (which was frozen in the bottom half):

Jazlyn figured it out quite quickly, but it took Peyton a little bit:

Then we were on to lunch:

Cupcakes (aka meatloaf with tinted mashed potatoes - actually very yummy, lol), eggs (aka marshmallow creme with a dollop of lemon pudding), punch (aka jello that I let set up with a straw in it), and corn (nothing special there, hehe).

Jazlyn and Brylie ate here at home, and then we took Peyton's to him at school.

The kids couldn't believe he got to eat 3 cupcakes and an egg for lunch! His reaction was actually the most comical, as he first tried to drink his punch.........and tried.........and tried.........before he finally realized it was jello. Then he was on to his cupcakes, where he first felt the frosting and said "that feels wierd" then discovered what they really were (Jazlyn first unwrapped hers and said "Ewwwwww" as she thought there was something horribly wrong with the cake part of hers, hehe!). Anyway, it was fun, and teachers and kids alike had to come see!

Now back to the more recent events.........

Jazlyn had a ball at the birthday party she attended on Sunday! They fixed hair and nails and put makeup on:

They also made flip flops:

I think she may have had a little too much cake and ice cream though, as she ended up in the bathroom in the middle of the night. Her baby sister ended up throwing up too, but besides being very grouchy for a couple days, that was the worst of it.

Then we come to Tuesday..................

I had an engagement photo session (you can access my photography site by the link/graphic under my picture to the right) and then Founder's Day for sorority. When I got home (was only got but an hour) it was chaos!!! Mom and Dad had arrived to visit just before I left, and I found it odd that they were just leaving as I got home. Come to find out, Peyton was asked to get Brylie from another room, so he picked her up and carried her to the living room. No big deal. As he was setting her down she started to squirm and made a little more abrupt landing than normal, but again, no big deal, it was only about 18" down to the ground, and she more less slid out of his arms. BUT.........from that point on, she was crying/screaming (from my understanding) and WOULD NOT put any weight on her one foot/leg. It started to swell, so we gave her some motrin and iced it. It was obvious she was in pain. We decided to wait it out and see how she was Wed. Of course, she was still in quite a bit of pain and still would not put any weight on it, so I took her to the Dr. It's difficult since she still can't tell us exactly where it hurts, so we ended up taking x-rays of her entire hip/leg/ankle/foot. Turns out she's chipped one of her ankle bones!!! UGH!!! Since it's not a traditional break in which you would want the two pieces of bone to fuse together, she's not in a cast, but just ace-wrapped. We have to keep her off of it for a couple of days and then see how she does. It's mostly going to be what she can take, and we just hope the chipped piece doesn't get lodged in the joint (which would then require surgery).

So fun times at our house........the dishes are piling up, the laundry is too, and frozen meals are what's on the table, as she won't let me put her down.

I'm not sure what the Lord is trying to teach us during these last few months (except that we will forever have debt at the hospital and dr's clinic) but I wished we'd hurry up and learn it so we can move on! lol..................

Brylie also has her appt with the allergist coming up on Monday, so be praying for her about that too. If we have to do the whole back pricks thing it's going to be a looooooooong day!

And here are a couple of scrapbook pages I've done recently:


Brylie thought she was pretty hot stuff climbing up and getting brother and sister's Valentine's candy!!!


My baby girl and my baby brother


Those of you that are visiting because I sent you an email, be sure to check back! I don't usually send out emails when I update the blog :)

Trying to be a little more regular in updating the blog now that in general things are a little more back to normal.

Not a real exciting week. Peyton has been throwing up since Wednesday night but is fine otherwise -- no drainage, no fever, no coughing, nothing, and the way he's throwing up (and two weeks in a row on the same night) is making me suspicious of an allergy. Have no clue what to, so it may take some investigating.

Otherwise we just have been doing normal stuff -- school, preschool, dance (Jazlyn got her recital costumes -- they're ADORABLE!!! Going to have to grab some pics!), oh, and we got somewhat of a blizzard! I think we ended up with 4" of VERY WET snow with 30mph (constant) winds and gusts to 50-ish. Mike worked later that night and said many streets were drifted to nearly shut, and many country roads were impassable (even Hwy 27 was closed for quite awhile!).

Jazlyn has a birthday party to attend tomorrow afternoon -- her first, and she's so excited! Otherwise it's same stuff different day/week and I'm so glad!!! LOL The weather is supposed to be gorgeous next week so I'm hoping to be able to fulfill some of my practice photography sessions that have been waiting on warmer weather :)

Here's a pic I snapped of Peyton reading to Brylie earlier this week: