I have sat down to write an updated post about 15 different times and never seem to get it finished. Life in the Schroeder house has just been so crazy. Well it is always crazy but things just seemed to be extra hectic the last couple months. I want to start with all the great news. Brendan has been making so much progress in all different areas. He is becoming a lot more clearer when he tries and repeat language. He is so much more aware of his surroundings. He will greet you and say goodbye and the best part is his eye contact is just overall so much better. He will engage with other kids and not only play side by side with them but even want to play with them. He is finally sleeping better which is part of why I think he is doing really good during therapy. He is doing so great with listening to directions and he is even responding when his name is called. He has learned to use the words "yes" and "no" which is so great because you can kinda have a little mini conversation with him. Learning these words have definitely given him his voice. He is very specific on what he wants when he wants it. These words are so powerful for him. He is still a crazy little daredevil. He has no fear so you absolutely can not take your eyes off him at any time. He is always keeping me on my toes! All of this progress he has made is because of all the hard work he does everyday along with his amazing team of therapist. For the last 6 months I had finally found the best team of therapist for Brendan. I so believe this is why his progress has been so good. Unfortunately 2 of his therapist are no longer with us and trust me it wasn't my choice at all. I have been so devastated over this change but when you are working with the state they love to just give me challenge and challenge. I have been interviewing lots of new therapist but so far no luck. But thankful even though they are no longer his therapist we have built a personal relationship so they are checking in and helping when we need it.
Now here is the part I have been dreading writing, the update on his allergies. In the beginning of April we had a stray cat give birth to kittens in our backyard. So naturally we made sure the kittens went somewhere to be taking care of. I knew my daughter, husband and I were all allergic to cats so I needed to make sure they didn't stay here. Brendan had never been around a cat so I honestly didn't think to much about it. Brendan touched one of the kittens with just a little finger and that was it. Well his eyes turned so red and swollen, so there was my answer he is also super allergic to cats. I gave him some non dye benedrly which he has had in the past but this time it had seemed to bother his stomach. Days and weeks after his encounter with the cat he just couldn't seem to get rid of his bed allergies. If anything I felt they were getting worse. I tried kids Clartin and Allergra he had REALY BAD reactions to those medications. I then tried Hylands natural allergy and he did better tolerating it but it didn't help his allergies at all. As his allergies were continuing to get worse he started to wake up with giant swollen eye lids. It was so strange and the poor little guy was just so miserable. After a couple hours of being up the swelling would go down but his eye's would stay pretty red. Then out of the blue mid to later afternoon he started to get a giant eye welt under his eyes. Both of the random puffy eyes lasted for a couple weeks. My heart was breaking for him everyday because I was trying to figure out what the cause of all this was. In the meantime he was just miserable because I couldn't find anything to help me. Well I soon narrowed down what could of been the cause for waking up with the puffy eyes. We had converted his crib a couple weeks prior to that and I bought him new sheets, comforter set to make the transition easier. So I decided to take all of that off his bed and just put back his old crib bedding. Well ever since I changed the bedding he never woke up again with any allergies. Ok so now what was the cause for the late afternoon eye welts. Well I had bought some new pillows that were on the couch. So I removed those and what do you know his allergies were GONE!!!! Ok so now I need to find out what the comforter and pillows were made out of. The giant tags that come on them of course were cut off so now to do some research. Well I found out that they both made of 100% polyester. So my thought was he is allergic to polyester?? That is the craziest thing ever. So then I started to look at all the tags on his clothes. Brendan is usually wearing the basketball type nylon short sets. Well all of those tags said 100% polyester. Ok so now I was so confused because his clothes were the nylon/silk feeling fabric and the comforter and pillows were that rougher more hard cotton feeling. Again I was so confused. I continued to just leave his clothes alone and just wait until he has his allergy appointment. The next week we went and saw his allergist and I explained everything and showed him pictures of what had been going on. He started to explain to me that original polyester is the fabric that feels like nylon and the way they get the fabric to change consistency is they use CHEMICALS! OMG he is allergic to the chemicals they use to change the fabric! Again the craziest thing I have ever heard of! But holy cow we just solved a GIANT mystery! His allergist said that this is such a rare thing. Well I think I have heard that more times in Brendan's 3 years of life so far. His doctor sent us to a speciality pharmacy to get some allergy medicine made without all the things he is allergic to. So if we have another situation of coming in contact with polyester or a cat we have something to give him for relief. But I have had to go through all his clothes and get rid of so much. Every single pair of pajamas he owned were polyester. It is such a giant pain but I will do anything to make sure he stays healthy! He has even gotten so sensitive to us cooking eggs in the house. His eyes turn red and almost black and blue underneath. We can no longer cook eggs in the house.
This is what his eyes were looking like before we removed all the polyester!
This is his current allergy list
This is his allergy doctor, Dr Hellmers!
Last weekend we had a stay vacation and a week before we went I had to go to the hotel talk to the housekeeping manager and explain Brendan's issues with polyester. He couldn't be in a room with any trace of polyester. My thought when I was talking to them is they are going to tell me I am crazy that they just can't help us. But actual the opposite happened. We were staying at the Hyatt Gainey Ranch and they did everything above and beyond of what I could of imagined. They specially ordered sheets for both beds in our room. Had pillows, comforters removed and replaced with polyester free fabric. Gave us a microwave to make sure we could prepare all of Brendan's food! I mean checked on us too make sure he was doing good. They are just such a great hotel. It made our weekend and stay so relaxing because I didn't have to worry about anything. I am thankful in 2 weeks we are going to San Diego and we are staying at the Hyatt Mission Beach so I am hopeful they will be just as accommodating. I told my husband that it looks like when we vacation that the Hyatt will be our hotel of choice. Because if you stay anywhere else say a smaller hotel Brendan wouldn't be able to be in a room with polyester! Of course my husband says why not everything having to do with Brendan's needs costs a giant fortune.
Brendan and I had the opportunity to be part of an autism documentary. I can't wait to share it with you after it is done! I will be doing a more detailed post when it is available to share!!
