How are we now?

It's been over a year since my last post. I've been getting quite a few emails from people, so I thought it's time to update. We are all doing really well! My youngest, now 7, will occasionally get a little spot that goes away quickly with manuka products, but has only had antibiotics once in the last two years! The rest of us have been completely MRSA free! So, for those of you suffering through, be encouraged.

We are still struggling through health issues with my youngest. She has asthma, food allergies, and environmental allergies, and eczema. She was in the hospital in March for asthma for two nights. They now have her on asthmanex daily and that seems to be helping to control it. Right now our biggest obstacle is her stomach pain. As I speak she is lying in bed with her stomach hurting. She said it hurt all night and it hurts almost daily. We have figured out some of her food allergies, and I'm thinking there are some still unknown. She is already on a diet free of gluten, dairy, egg, soy, nuts, melons, citrus, and tropical fruits. I'm suspecting some sort of meat as another allergen. Her stomach is distended a lot and she should be skin and bones with all the foods she can't have, but she isn't. We are planning to have a more in depth blood test done. We had one done last year that tested the total IgE in her blood and it showed up as a number over 400. We don't know which allergens make up this 400 number. We know milk is around a 20, egg is a 2. All the known allergens only make up less than 50, so we are missing allergens that make up the other 350. Kinda hard to follow, but that is a HUGE number, especially not knowing what it's coming from.

She also had a severe reaction to carmine, which apparently is red no. 4. We had no idea she had this issue, but the attached picture is of her back. Those red stripes are what happened after ingesting a fruit cup with peaches, pears, and cherries. The rash goes up both shoulders and down her arms as well. Red no. 4 is made from a certain type of beetle, so beware!