Au revoir pussy cat. Take the cow with you.

E has "milk protein induced enteropathy." It doesn't really mean anything other than we have to keep him 100% dairy-free for at least another year and then challenge him to see if he's outgrown it. It is a condition that children usually outgrow by the age of four* and while it has caused some problems (vitamin deficiencies and maybe some liver stuff) it's really not that bad. He was diagnosed by a "real" doctor but after reading more on milk allergies after a friend's little boy got diagnosed with enterocolitis** sometime last week, I stumbled upon this and figured that based on the blood work and poop tests, this was probably what he has. But since we'd come this far and since we'd waited so long to see the 2nd best allergist (the 1st best had a four month waitlist!) and since the scratch test was not a big deal***, we figured what the hell.

And it's a good thing we went. E is severely allergic to cats. As in, he's pre-asthmatic and the doctor gave me a handout on how to use an inhaler. As in, "How old is the cat? Only ten? Oh, that's too bad he's not, um, older." As in, you better get rid of the cat before your son's lungs collapse. The irony is that the kid's first word(s) was "kitty cat" and he used to spend a good part of his day sprawled on top of the cat. Literally.

So Baci lives with my sister now. And while I am sad and still "see" him around the house, there was really no choice. While I know that in part it is because I want to believe it so, I honestly do think that Baci will be better off with his aunt. She is a loving and patient woman who has more time for him and whose lap is a lot less occupied. Not to mention that he will no longer be the bottom rung of a tall ladder. And there are no coyotes terrorizing her neighborhood. And Scout won't keep chasing him out of the kitchen at dinner time, off of the couch at end-of-the-day snuggle tv time and generally hazing him as if he were a nerdy freshman from the local community college. And...I could go on and on. It's better all around...right?

* I really hope he outgrows it by this time next year. I mean, one summer without ice cream is bad enough.

** For those of you who have had aha moments with your own children after reading about E's symptoms, our friend's son had diarrhea, projectile vomiting, and face rash amongst other things. They noticed that it was exacerbated by dairy. His allergy tests also came back negative, so it's not a "true" i.e. IgE-mediated allergy, but who cares what you call it. Dairy makes him sick.

*** It really wasn't that bad. I had the nurse scratch me first to see what it felt like and it's like getting scratched with a sharp plasticy thing. The hard part is that the whole appointment took almost three hours (included a trip down to the lab for bloodwork) and about 30 or so of those minutes are spent trying not to scratch the itchies. In a moment of genius, as we were leaving the house I grabbed the brand new box of beads that E had been pining over and brought them with me. I was torn - the potential for the 900 piece version of 52 pickup almost kept me from viola-ing it from my purse, but E was really calm that day and he needed something soothing and introverted to occupy him. I put the sectioned tray of beads on the spinny doctor's chair and we laced beads with a quiet intensity for almost an hour. And once again, E amazed me with his bravery and maturity, much beyond his years.