Pathetic

So, I've decided that I have a love/hate relationship with Spring. I LOVE the signs of new life, the warmer weather, FLIP FLOPS, playing outside with the kids, etc. But, I HATE what it does to Hudson.

Wednesday evening, after playing outside, Hudson looked like this (a little puffy, but not terrible):

So, Dave told me to take him to his allergist the next day. (Side note: We had him tested last November to see what he was allergic to. Having had met our annual deductible for the year, we figured we should take advantage and get him tested. Out of the 55 things they tested him for, he was allergic to about 30, and highly allergic to probably 15-17. Thankfully, no foods. But all sorts of trees, grasses, mold, dust, cats, etc). He saw the Nurse Practitioner on Thursday, looking like the above, and she just told me MORE Zyrtec, add Benedryl, lots of lotion, etc. So, we leave (feeling a bit defeated because none of that was currently working, obviously), go to my parents' house where Trent and Paige were watching Crew, let the boys play outside for a few minutes before we head home, and I turn around and see Hudson looking like this:

this is after we got home, but you get the idea...

 The good news was that he was feeling pretty good (besides the itching). After some cold compresses, shower, more Zyrtec, he looked like this (please pardon the dinner on his face):

We had him sleep in our room that night since we knew that allergic reactions can get bad fast, so we wanted to make sure he was breathing ok. He awoke happy, but looking like this:

sorry for the poor quality iPhone pic...he was moving around too fast, and I was holding Crew

 That sealed the deal. I was taking him back to see the allergist. I called and pretty much demanded to see his dr. They told me to get there as fast as I could since they closed at noon. I managed to get all the kids dressed, drop William at a friends, Crew with Trent and Paige, and get to the dr within 45 minutes. Pretty impressive, if I may say so myself! They got us in pretty quickly as soon as they saw him:

waiting to see Dr. Mayse...playing a little Angry Birds while we wait

 I knew it was as bad as I imagined when Dr Mayse nearly fell over when he walked into the room. He gave Hudson the "worst case of seasonal allergies...ever" award...not an award I ever envisioned for one of my kids! He gave him an immediate dose of steroid and enough samples for the next 4 days so that we wouldn't have to wait around at a pharmacy (what a great doctor!!!). The worst (well, maybe not the worst) part is that he's not allowed to play outside until all of the swelling is gone. That's not easy for an outdoorsy 4 year old! 

We went back to my parents house to collect Crew...had some lunch, and you can already see the medicine is starting to work:

This morning, he's still pretty swollen, but so much better! What you can't see all that well in these pics is that his entire face, neck and upper back/chest are SOLID rash.

After much consideration and talking to our doctor, we have decided to go with allergy drop treatment. Basically, it's that or shots. The nice thing about the drops is that we can do it at home, and we will just put drops under his tongue every day. He will have to be on it for about 3-4 years, but after that, (Lord willing), NO MORE allergies! I really wanted to avoid heading down this path, but this is SO much worse than last year, and so often things get worse each year, not better. I can't watch my little guy suffer like this every spring!!! I'm so grateful we were able to see the Dr and now we can move forward to making this stuff go away!