Rain On Our Parade

Today, we were very excited. We have been planning on going to the river all week. Ian had his follow-up with the allergist in Tahlequah and then my HC was going to show us a good spot on the river to play and swim and picnic. We were a bit late for our appointment and it's a bit of a drive, complete with sharp curves, s-bend roads and a hairpin turn up and down mountains to get there. The posted speed limit is 65 for most of the way, though there are "suggested" speed limits of 35 in spots. My HC thought it was very important to get there on time and proceeded to show us exactly what our Jeep could do at 55 around those curves. Most everything fell from one side of the Jeep to the other, then back again. When we got there, I peeled my hand off of the handle above the window and unclenched my bottom from the seat. Ian reluctantly unfastened his seat belt and hobbled down to the ground. Erin was just glad to get out of the car. It took a few minutes for the green tinge to leave her face. (We made it there on time and he never went over the posted speed limit, so I could hardly fuss about it, could I? At least, that was the argument my HC presented to my terrified whimpers.)

Well, we found out Ian's results. If you remember the previous post about Erin, there's a scale for the severity of an allergy. A level 3 is an alert level.
He scored a 2 for Brewer's Yeast, Coconut and Corn. (sigh, but not such a huge deal)
He scored a 3 for Cheese, Eggs, Wheat and Soybeans. (Grrr! Soy?!)
He scored a 4 for Milk. So now we are completely on Rice Milk and I cancelled our WIC today. We can buy our own Juicy Juice and Rice Krispies.
He had no reaction at all to environmental allergens. So that was good.
We are still processing the whole soy thing. So far, we are swapping our vegetable oil for canola oil. The doc told us to drink o.j. with calcium and added vitamins, keep taking our vitamin supplements and try to eat a lot of green leafy vegetables.
so there.
As if to echo our sobering reality, we exited the office to a dark grey sky and strong winds. We went to Wal-mart to pick up more rice milk and a rotisserie chicken, since Ian couldn't eat the sandwich I packed with wheat bread and cheese (Erin doesn't care for sandwiches; she had cut up chicken in her baggie). We decided to go to the river anyway. We stopped for gas and pulled onto the road to the bridge we had decided to visit. We were immediately enveloped in a curtain of hail that smacked and bounced against our Jeep. My HC spun us around and we took shelter under the overhang at the gas station we had just left. The hail left and a heavy downpour took its place. We proceeded to the bridge, but it was raining/lightning/thundering too hard to get out of the car. We ate some beef jerky and watched. We decided to go explore under a double bridge not far from that same gas station. This picture is one I took while under the bridge. You can see how dark the storm was. Ian thought it was night time. The rain stopped enough for us to get out and throw some rocks in the water. We got back in the car, as the temperature had dropped to the low 60s. The kids pretended to drive.



Erin's turn.


Ian's turn.


Everyone's turn.


"Dad! Ian's hogging the steering wheel! Make him move!"


After a while, the rain slacked off some and we played a little more. We threw some more rocks in. We ate some chicken. Erin was cold and wanted to be held. We were all cold! We decided to go home.


Erin took a nap, Ian immediately changed into some sweats and played video games.




Now we are watching Nemo and the sun is shining outside.

Adjusting

Yesterday marks my first attempt at wheat-less, egg-less, milk-less baking. And it was edible. It was pretty good if you didn't remember how much better it tasted before I modified everything. But I digress.
I scoured the internet for recipes. I found one for oatmeal muffins. It called for weird ingredients and hand juiced oranges, the zest of one whole orange and cranberries. Real cranberries. Call me a nut, but I didn't want to waste our oranges to make muffins. And I'm not sure I've ever really seen real cranberries. Oh, wait, I did see some last holidays because my HC told me if I ever tried to make cranberry sauce from scratch he and the kids would go to McDonald's for Thanksgiving. I don't think he likes whole cranberries very much. Did anyone else get that vibe?
Anyway, that recipe was not realistic. So I took my old recipe and modified it. Instead of flour, I made my own oat flour in the chopper. Instead of an egg, I used 1/2 a banana. There was already applesauce in the recipe, which was good. The banana instead of an egg idea was from the pamphlet the allergist gave us. For everyone else, it had "For baking:" in front of it, so I wouldn't recommend it for fried rice or anything. :)
They baked and came out. They smelled so good. We have been without breads, crackers, buns or any kind of baked bready goods for a week. They cooled and the kids fell upon them like hyenas on a carcass.
While they were distracted by the discovery of muffin cups and the fact that they had, indeed, ingested paper, I snagged one. It was crispy on the outside and very moist on the inside. Very moist like it needed to be baked a bit more. Very moist like it giggled when I broke it open. You get it.
I was also confused by the fact that they hadn't risen much. Is oat flour really that heavy?
Anyway, I think Erin ate 4 of the things yesterday. And she ate one this morning while we were in the doctor's office for her follow-up.
Last night I made sweet potato fries that would have been better if I had read ALL of the directions and put them on a paper towel when they came out of the oven. So they got a wee bit soggy, but they were still good.
This morning we went to our doc's appt. Erin's doing better, though she's still wheezing. She's still got a cough, etc etc etc. She doesn't have a fever anymore and she's eating, which was evident from the muffin crumbs trailing us from the waiting room. We will continue to monitor her as she goes off of the 5 day scrips, blah blah blah. Ian is also going to be scheduled for his own allergy testing. Though his isn't as scary as Erin's he still gets the never-ending sleep-interrupting cough every 6 weeks or so. Sigh!
Tomorrow will be our first allergen-conscious shopping trip. We are sincerely hoping it goes well and is not too awfully expensive!