The Congdons

Last Thursday Gwen came home from preschool, complaining that she was itchy. Didn't think anything of it, especially when she woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me she was really itchy (yes, that means I was too tired to respond and told her to go back to sleep). That then started a cycle of waking up some mornings with her eyes glued shut with gunk and crust, or her eyes still open but swollen and with gunk/crust on them. She also had a few nights where she was so itchy that she had red splotches all over her skin from itching, and where ever the red splotches were, she broke out in hives. I was concerned about it since she's never ever had hives before, and I decided to take her to the doctor after seeing that her face would break out in hives just for crying for longer than 5 minutes, something that definately has never happened. So I took her to the doctor on Tuesday.

What a joke. From now on, I will make sure that she sees her regular doctor and no other doctor in that office, because he told me the hives were just from her skin being sensitive from a cold she had had almost 3 weeks ago. Really? Then why hasn't that ever been an issue when she's had a cold before in the last 4 1/2 years? And he didn't even really address what was going on with her eyes until I reminded him as he was getting ready to walk out the door. Wasn't concerned he said. Maybe a little bit of an allergy he said. Blah. Told him both symptoms started around the same time, but what does a mother know compared to a licensed pediatrician?

So I decided to conduct my own tests and keep a journal of everything and then take her back to the doctor and possibly an allergist. I have allergies, and I get itchy eyes/nose/skin with lots of sneezing/runny nose and sometimes a bit of a cough. But to be open minded, I paid attention to everything-new bath soap, new sunscreen, pollen counts, and of course everything she ate. I talked about it a lot with my aunt, who is a nurse, and bounced ideas off Robbie and mulitple other family members. It seemed that her skin was getting really irritated by something, and that something had to be bugging her eyes too, because both symptoms showed up at the same time.

I had begun to suspect some type of pollen, but a conversation with my dad this morning really made the decision for me. We were talking about how much pollen was coming from the pine trees this year. When I went to pick up Gwen from preschool yesterday afternoon, my car had been sitting in the driveway since 10 am, and it was COVERED in yellow pine tree pollen. Seriously, I had to wash my windshield there was so much pollen on it. My dad and I talked about it, and we both think because there's so much pine pollen everywhere, and since I had a reaction to it as well (got on my back...had to use a metal dinner fork to scratch my back it itched so bad) we're pretty sure that pine tree pollen is the reason for the itchy/red/gunky eyes and the red/itchy/hive skin. It's just as bad today-my dad washed his car yesterday before coming home around 4, and it sat in the driveway all day, but when he came home from work today around 12:30, his car was covered (he used my mom's car to get to work today). I went out a few minutes before he came home to check the mail, and I could see where I had walked on the driveway because there was so much pollen on it (it's bright yellow). The wind had even blown huge piles of the pollen up against the garden hose on the walkway-so gross. But thank goodness for finally figuring out that it's a pollen allergy and we can give her something for it.

Oh, and for some reason unknown to us, after both of us receiving new callings (Rob's the new Young Men's president, and I am not only a Relief Society teacher but I am the Enrichment Leader-and I know it has a new name, but for the life of me I can never remember it), and thinking we were going to be here for a while...that may not be the case. The job he has right now is thinking about waiting for a year now to promote Robbie (instead of right away like they talked about at first) and if they do promote him, they're not looking to give him a raise, which is kind of silly. Anyways, Robbie has had two different companies call him interested in interviewing him, and both happened thanks to Rob staying in contact with people he's applied with (and been denied) or from working with them previously. He had both interviews today...the first one went great, and he's still at the second one right now. It would require us to either move to New Hampshire or Massachusettes, but then again they could both be dead ends again. Just another trial in our journey. Praying hard that one of the two works out though...the first interview went really well and looks very promising, since it's a company he's worked closely with before. So, fingers crossed!!