OUR version of "normal"....

And so where were we? Oh, that's right, nowhere in particular. After this last hospitalization of 2008 things seemed to have smoothed out some. There was the time two months later that an urgent care Dr gave Liv Zithromax for "double ear infections. Of course, she reacted and we rushed right back, this time to an ER. This is where we found out not only did she NOT have one ear infection, let alone two, but she is also EXTREMELY allergic to Azithromycin...super.

This would be followed up by a visit in the summer for a bee sting, well...we THINK a bee sting. Liv stated a "bee" stung her, but her Dr is inclined to think it was a yellow jacket as bees sting far less than we tend to think. Either way, she is labeled as bee/wasp/yellow jacket allergic. Of course, this isn't the simple not-too-bad kind of allergic, Azithromycin and the insect creatures are added to the Anaphylactic kind.

Other than these, we really just had a pretty calm year. Again, by calm, I mean one to two visits a month to the ER for "mystery reactions", several follow-up visits to the peds office, oh and the normal childhood instances that send far too many children to the ER...you know, like falling off the side of a trampoline (*sigh* allergic AND active, double whammy).

You might think that all of this is trying and wears on a person, and you'd be right - some of the time anyway. Most of the time, it's second nature or just like a second skin, to all of us. There have been times Liv has broken down in tears and wished she were "normal", but those times have just brought to light how strong our little family unit is. Tai has been quick to tell her in these times that she IS normal. She is just our "version" of normal (a phrase I use a lot around here). Our faith has also been strengthened by all of this, after all, God doesn't make mistakes and we make sure Liv knows this. I'm convinced that these allergies were given to our family as a double edged blessing, yes, blessing. You see, we are now FAR more aware of what we put into our daily meals. Tai, at only 11 years of age, is continually making better food decisions based on what we learn and teach together in label reading. Liv, I'm convinced is destined for big things...like helping to bring light to this subject. Yes, people realize food allergies are a problem for some, but do they know to what extent? I find that far too often, most people have no idea. Oh, and I now know how to spell Anaphylactic AND Azithromycin (see, always a lesson).

Now, I will say that my outlook isn't without fault or all sunshine and roses either. As of late, I've developed a fabulous case of anxiety issues. These anxiety "attacks" hit hard when they do and thankfully, not often.

**I'm not sure that this is a past OR present blog post, can we call it both?**