An Attempt to Compensate

We are leaving town tomorrow and I will not have computer access until I return on Thursday (how will I survive?). So, on that note I will leave you with a few "entries" to try to compensate for my absence.
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I participated in a variety of sports growing up, from basketball to volleyball, to karate, and many sports in between. As I got older I focused more on basketball and both my high school teams and national traveling teams consistently drew large crowds. To someone who grew up around sports, a large crowd became the norm.

When we stared our daughter in ballet, knowing they were working toward a December and May recital, we had no idea what to expect. To me dance is a great activity that my daughter loves, but nothing to really go crazy about...unless you are the proud parent of a participant. Well, today I learned that apparently people take their dance very seriously.

We had to be at an 8 am rehearsal. I took my daughter just thinking it was a simple walk thru, which is pretty much was. Except for that many of the kids arrived with an entourage of family and friends and neighbors and possibly people they recruited in the parking lot. Rehearsal was pretty much standing room only. It's rehearsal people.

Her performance started tonight at 6 pm. We were told to have them backstage at 5:30 pm. We arrived at 5 pm thinking we were soooooo early and were trying to figure out ways we could kill time. Well, we walked in and the place was packed. We only got seats because my sister had saved some for us. Unbelievable. These are 3 and 4 year olds performing (older kids did perform later in the evening). I guess that I am just stunned at the amount of people who showed up for a children's performance. There were hundreds, sitting on the floor, standing to the side, standing back around the sides and behind the free standing stage. Quite honestly, I would have had stage fright performing in front of that many people at that age (shockingly none of the kids seemed to mind).

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My favorite book of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Because of my affection for this book and my admiration for the fictional Atticus I always wanted to name our son Atticus. My husband doesn't have the same adoration for TKAM as I do thus didn't appreciate the name Atticus in the same way I did. Suffice it to say our son is not named Atticus. Since I am fairly certain we are done having children my dream for use of that name will die somewhere in the pages of that book.

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There is a new Brett Dennen song entitled "Heaven" and one of the lyrics asks, "What the hell is heaven? Is there home for the homeless? Is there hope for the hopeless?" It has been in my head replaying over and over again for a solid month now.

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A few weeks ago our daughter broke out in hives all over one of her legs. I gave her Benedryl right away and within a few hours they had cleared up. The following day she again broke out all over both legs and her buttocks with these huge welt-like hives. She hadn't been given anything new to eat, I hadn't changed the laundry detergent, she hadn't been around any new or different animals or other possible allergens, so we were at a loss. This bout again went away. Later that evening she broke out on her hands, feet, and stomach and by the following day they were all over her face. She looked like she had leprosy or something.

By this time we had called her doctor who said to continue giving her Benedryl and to watch them for a few more days. Well, we went up North where it was very cold and almost instantly she broke out all over her body, her face and hands especially. On our way back home we called our doctor and she saw her immediately. However, she too was at a loss as to what could be causing them. I mentioned to her, though, that I noticed that the hives got worse when she'd been outside in the cold. So, my doctor had me perform a series of "tests" with her over the next few days to see if exposure to colder weather would again cause her to break out. So, I took her outside and had her run around for 30 minutes and then brought her back inside. Within five minutes of being inside she broke out all over the place with these hives again.

Apparently, she has cold urticaria (cold hives) so we have to limit her exposure to the cold or make sure that her skin is not exposed...much easier said than done. We also have to keep her dosed with Benedryl if we know we are going to be outside for any amount of time. Helps with the hives but it sure makes her tired...not really tired enough to go to sleep, but tired enough to make her look (and act) like a zombie.

One of the doctor's other suggestions was for her to wear a ski mask when going outside, which my daughter would have willingly done since one of her favorite books is Freckleface Strawberry (which is about a girl who wears a ski mask to school to cover her freckles). I thought that was a little creepy though so I ended up getting her a cute pink flower neck gaiter. So, between her ski hat, hooded jacket, neck gaiter, and mittens she's pretty well covered and it has been helpful. The breakouts have been less frequent and less severe.

It's just strange. She has spent quite a bit of time in the cold in the past three years and never had a reaction like this. I hope this is something she will grow out of as we like to spend a lot of time in colder weather, but if it compromises her health we obviously won't be.

So, those of you who live back east..any suggestions of other items I should be purchasing to ensure that none of my daughter's overly sensitive skin is exposed?

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