Good-bye Boise... Hello Denver!

If someone had told me 6 years ago that I would have a little girl whose eczema was so severe that she would lose sleep from the constant itching, have oozing sores all over her body (eliciting many a random question), have some social concerns (due to the aforementioned questions, stares and comments), and would lead to her body becoming resistant to antibiotics due to the constant application and administration of medication, I would have looked at them with a funny look. If they would have said that this condition would become so severe that we would search and search for a treatment program that could alleviate these issues and that it would cost as much as several tropical vacations AND that we would willingly sign up for this... I would look for the crack pipe that this person must be smoking from. No way, I would have said. No way could this "little" condition that is randomly mentioned in baby books become so severe and impact our lives in so many ways.

And the food allergies, oh the food allergies! When we first started down the food allergy path, starting with a milk and egg allergy, I remember thinking, "Well thank God she's not allergic to peanuts." Oh but wait, she is allergic to peanuts, and tree nuts, and fish, and sesame and eggs... Again, if someone told me 6 years ago that these allergies would literally wake me up in the middle of the night with nightmares that some factory worker in some random food manufacturing plant is finishing up his peanut butter sandwich and he doesn't wash his hands, I would have started the "hyena Sarah laugh" I do when something is really silly. In this nightmare, not only does he not wash his hands, but then he touches the bagel he is making, which ends up on my daughter's breakfast plate. One bite and then she's having an anaphylactic reaction and we speed to the hospital as her throat closes.... If someone had told me that this nightmare wouldn't only be a dream but would happen a couple of times, I would have been devastated and shocked. So here we are, gladly trading in some tropical vacations to hopefully get more answers about our food allergies (I say "our" because really, the Kearneys are in this together) and to hopefully get this girl some relief (sleeping through the night for the first time in 6 years would be neat!) We will be gone for three weeks and I will be sure to keep all of you posted as to our adventures at National Jewish Hospital. I am so thankful for all of the sweet words, thoughts and prayers we've had from our family and friends, you all have no idea how much we appreciate the love. That being said, we do recognize just how lucky we are this is our issue and we are not facing something else. In fact, one of our Denver activities are going to be to visit kids who are much, much sicker than Morgan and give away some gifts for their entertainment, as well as bring some goodies to the Ronald McDonald House because let's be real, life could be much more difficult and heartbreaking for us. So off to Denver we go.... We'll miss you Boise!!!!