Well I wish we were back to normal. Jet lag from the 5 hour time change really set us back for about a week. Ally would go to sleep at her normal bedtime of 730-800pm and then wake up 3-4 hours later (right when Becky and I were going to sleep) and be awake for 3-5 hours. It was awful. And I am now sick because for a week that meant I slept from 3-4AM when Ally would fall back asleep until 6AM when it was time to wake up and go to school and work. Becky needs more sleep than me so she would go to sleep and I would stay up with Ally.
UGH it was rough. Added to that was the fact that Ally has had a terrible stomach ache – so bad she was sent home from school on Monday, her first day back, last week. Becky stayed home with her Tuesday. Ally still has her rash, and has now been back to the dermatologist two times, the pediatrician once and had blood drawn for a full blood work up.
Good News – Ally does not have Lyme or Mono and all her labs looks good.
Bad News – Ally still has a stomach ache (she missed school on Monday of this week), and still has her rash – its almost gone on her torso, but still quite prominent on her face.
Next step is to see a pediatric gastroenterologist, we have an appointment with one on March 23 and we now need to get Ally tested for allergies.
The dermatologist at our appointment yesterday said she thinks Ally’s rashes are eczema – the one on her torso has gone away with topical steroid cream, but the one on her face persists. The primary causes of eczema are weather, stress and allergies. They don’t think it’s the weather since it was just as bad in Hawaii as it has been here, and they don’t think its allergy because its not itchy – but it is very puzzling because the #1 symptom of eczema is itchiness and Ally is not itchy at all. So it might not actually be eczema. They also don’t think that the rashes are entirely stress related. So we are back to some combination of things.
All of these appointments and uncertainty and 2+month of rash on her face has made Ally pretty anxious. The anxiety might be the cause of her tummy ache, or the medical cause of her rash could be what is causing her tummy ache. We just don’t know. The doctors don’t know.
We had a really good meeting this week with Ally’s teachers and the counselor at her school. They are all working together with us to give Ally some additional support now to try and make her feel more comfortable.
And while that happens we will continue to work on the physical/medical side of things and see what we can find out.
In other really amazing news – Ally mastered a HUGE skill at gymnastics. She can do a round-off back-handspring which is 2 skills combined. It’s a major accomplishment for her. I’ll try and take a video this week.
We’re pretty light on the pictures since we’ve been back from Hawaii but here are some.
Last week with all the snow in our front yard before ballet. And at right a picture of the costume Ally will wear for her ballet show in June. It is June 14 please let us know if you’d like to come.
Ally dancing at ballet. She is so graceful.
Walking around our neighborhood – the snow banks are so tall.
One of the things Ally had to do for homework while we were in Hawaii was write reviews, in Spanish. Above is her review of the Mexican restaurant we ate at in Kauai and below is of the shave ice we had on the north shore of Oahu
One of the days Ally was home sick she assembled her puzzle ball all by herself! We’ve all been enjoying our pets. Lots of cuddles and resting with Cloey and Nali.
And Carl and Cloey are starting to get to know each other – lying on the floor about 18” apart is huge progress at our house.
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