Karis' Health

Last Friday, Karis had an appointment at the allergist for allergy testing. Oh my goodness, 3 hours of sitting, needle pricking, sitting, dr. talking, needle pricking, sitting, dr. talking, dr. talking, and more dr. talking. So after he talked to me for an hour, (I am not kidding), I walked away more confused about everything than I was when I went in. Granted, I did pick up on a couple of things, but overall, holy crap. Ok, so maybe overwhelmed is a better way to describe how I felt, and still feel.

The results...
Karis is allergic to dogs, cats, dust, molds, trees, trees native only to Ft. Wayne, wheat, milk, and a couple others that were on her arm that I had to read a few hours after we got home. I am not sure what exactly they are, but I wrote them down and they will be discussed at our next appointment, where they will have a book about Karis and her allergens all typed up and ready for us.
In the meantime, we are to unbunk the bunk beds because she isn't allowed to sleep under the top bunk anymore. Apparently all of the dust mites, skin cells, etc. breed in mattresses more than anywhere else and that is all falling on her all night as she sleeps. Ewww. Even more ewww, was listening to him explain that dust mites produce 200 times their body mass in poop which also floats around and we breath in.

So what we are instructed to do...
We have to buy the allergy encasings for all the mattresses, pillows, and comforters so that these nasty little dust mites (and their poop) won't bother Karis. We have to buy a humidity gage so that we always keep the humidty between 35 and 45. We have to buy the allergy filters for the ac/heater. (did that yesterday.) He would like us to buy a hepa air cleaner. She is not allowed to use down pillows anymore, which both the girls use, so new pillows are in order. Tiara has to have a bath at least every other week. I am supposed to wash her sheets in hot water twice a week. (this one I find comical.) I am lucky to change the sheets every 2 weeks!

We were going to move the twin beds into our room (it will become a guest room when we move upstairs), and my in-laws were planning to bring a full sized bed up sometime soon, which I was planning to put in the girls room. For those of you who don't already know, the girls both sleep on the bottom bunk, which is a twin. Karis is starting to fall between the bed and the wall. They are just getting too big to sleep in a twin together. But the only way Karis will sleep through the night is with her sister. So as I told the dr. about Dwight and Zannie bringing up the full sized mattress, he begins to frown. (You must imagine, he is very "Rainman"esque anyway.) He is not too keen on her sleeping on an old bed. He would much prefer that we bought a new mattress. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? How in the world are we going to afford all of this???

So they believe that her allergies are breaking down her immune system and causing her to get more serious illnesses. I have to take her today to get blood drawn because they are going to do an immune system test to see if hers is weak. Oh, and by the way, the doctor, nurses, AND the front desk staff all said that she is the best kid they've had in years! She didn't cry, whine, scream, nothing. They said she was better than many adults they have in there! They probably poked her back with 100 different allergens and then did her arms with about 10 on each arm. What a trooper!

Back on Stage!

We have some fun and exciting news!
Last weekend, I received an email from a little theater here in Fort Wayne. It is an old fire station that they have turned into a theater now called the Firehouse Theater. Anyway, the email said that they were auditioning for Noah's Ark and needed 8 children. So I asked Chali if she would be interested in auditioning. Of course she said absolutely! So Saturday Jen and I took the girls to the theater. Now Karis saw Chali up there and wanted to audition as well, so we humored her. Then the director, Paul, asked my sister and I if we wanted to. I thought it would be good for Chali to see Mommy up on stage (even though it's been 12 years since I've been up there!) So I got up there and read a part and so did Jen.

Paul ended up calling me on Tuesday and let me know that plans had changed. He didn't get enough men to audition for Noah's Ark, so he was changing it to a musical comedy melodrama called "Wash Your Troubles Away." He said he would like both Chali and Karis to play the little waif orphans and then he offered me the lead and my sister a part alongside my character! Here's a short rundown of the storyline...

Olympia (my character) is the owner of a laundrymat in the town of Digalittledeeper. Olympia discovered while washing clothes that there were gold flecks and nuggets sometimes in the pockets leftover from the miners. So she's been saving all of this gold for some years and is now ready to retire and sell the place to Ida (Jen's character.) Well some of the villianous people find out and end up somehow killing Olympia with a heart attack I believe. Then I come back in the second act as my twin sister Ophelia. I haven't gotten very far, but from what I am understanding, there ends up being some big hoorah about who should get the laundrymat and whether or not there was foul play in the death of Olympia. Chali and Karis get to sing a couple of songs and I am so excited to see that! I was a little worried about Karis but Paul said even if she just runs around the stage, it will be fine because they are supposed to be dirty, unruly little waif orphans. Heehee! I read through a bit last night with Chali and it looks to be hilarious!

It will be showing September 11th-20th. We are so excited!