Nana's Knee Surgery

So my mom has had two knee surgeries this summer. She had a partial knee replacement on her left leg in the middle of May. She went to physical therapy with Val (Harrison's mommy) and diligently did her exercises at home. Because it was her left leg, she was able to drive not too long after her surgery. She was well enough to go back to school half-days for the last few days of the school year, roughly 4 weeks after her surgery. Last Tuesday she had a partial knee replacement on her right knee. She was very strategic and worked so hard to rehab her left leg so that she could have the right one done as soon as possible. If she has the same success with her right leg as she did her left, she should be okay to head back to school just in time for the new school year to start. Both times she had her surgery at the North Carolina Specialty Hospital in Durham. She had the surgery on Tuesdays and went home on Fridays. My sister spent the night with her on Tuesday and stayed with her all day on Wednesday. I went there after work on Wednesday and spent the night with her and stayed through Thursday. I didn't take Deuce to see her after the first surgery but I took him to see her on Tuesday after the second surgery.

He was a little scared at first. He gave her a kiss if he was being held and we tried to get him to lay in the bed with her but he wasn't having it. We showed him her big knee brace and told him Nana had a boo boo. He looked sad and then showed Nana his boo boo, which is a barely there anymore scrape from a few weeks back.

After a few minutes he loosened up and became his normal self. My sister had brought us dinner so we set up and ate in the room. Deuce found the box of gloves on the wall and they were at the perfect height for him to reach them. I found him getting frustrated trying to put them on. He finally said "help!"

So he put his Dr. gloves on and he crawled up on Nana's bed and pretended to check her out. It was adorable. We only stayed for about an hour because mom was really tired and it's pretty difficult to contain a 2 year old in a hospital room. He much preferred running walking up and down the halls waving to all of the nurses.

Mom is doing well with her recovery and is back to PT with Val today.

Grass Allergies?

Does anybody out there have any experience with grass allergies in their little ones?

This rash that Deuce has been battling is not giving in.  The initial problem spots are getting better but new spots are popping up.  Not a lot, but enough to drive me nuts and they are leaving discoloration marks on his legs {they are supposed to go away over time}.  The only conclusion that I can draw after spending lots of time on google, is that he is allergic to grass.  The rash is pretty contained to his legs and even more so, mostly below the knee.  We are still applying the steroid cream twice daily, taking oatmeal baths every night (with a splash of white vinegar, based on advice of a football mom who I later found out her child is allergic to grass), using Aveeno lotion after bath and applying hydrocortisone throughout the day.  The grass allergy idea just kind of hit me this weekend, so I've been putting long socks on him all week, as opposed to his Crocs.  We'll see if that helps.  The football mom said her son used to break out in a bad rash too and over time he built up a tolerance to it and it doesn't really bother him anymore.  They still cover him up for football but that's to keep him from itching at all.

I feel like there is very little information out there about a grass allergy in children under 2 and short of having that very painful allergy testing done, I thought I would use my blog as a resource to see if anyone is familiar with this type of thing.  We haven't been back to the doctor since I came up with this grass thing because I don't think that there is much that can be done if it's proven true.  Much medically, anyway.  They can't really take any over the counter allergy medicine at 16 months so I am going to try things at home first to see if it clears up.  I spoke with the pharmacist as well to see what he recommended and of course he said consult my practitioner.  But once I told him I worked at GSK, and I wasn't asking for a diagnosis, I just wanted his opinion about allergy medicine, he lightened up and gave me some suggestions for things to check for at home.  He said to make sure we change the air filter regularly, change his sheets often, keep his legs covered when he goes outside, and pay attention to everything that goes in his mouth.  He could be putting something in his mouth that doesn't strike me as an issue but it could be causing this reaction.  I hadn't thought of that (other than foods).  We haven't given him any of the danger foods (nuts, fish, etc) so I don't believe it's that.  I am just really drawn to the idea of grass since it's primarily localized to the lower half of his legs.  He doesn't seem to be in any pain or bothered in any way so that's good.

Any thoughts or suggestions?