State of the Stella :: Picture of Amy writing her name

[pne]

Stella's father is visiting us for a couple of weeks, and he invited us to McDonald's today for lunch.

Half-way through her burger, Stella started feeling unwell. She said she wasn't sure whether it was just her overactive imagination or whether it was really an allergic reaction, but she said she wanted to take a taxi home rather than wait for a bus, so I called one for her.

She went outside with Peter (her father) to wait for it, and I stayed inside with Amy, who wanted to play for a while. (She couldn't come with us anyway, since we didn't have a car seat for her and most taxis don't have one, either.)

I later heard from Peter that she vacillated between going home and lying down and going to the hospital and having a doctor look over her, but eventually opted for the latter.

At the hospital, they decided to keep her for observation at least until tomorrow.

When Amy and I visited her this evening (after a parents' meeting at the kindergarten), she was still not feeling too well, with her circulation being down, like the last time, but it didn't seem to be serious.

I still don't know whether it was imagination or a real reaction, though I heard that the doctors had seen a slight swelling in her throat this time. Understandably, Stella's rather wary of eating out at all now.

We expect her to be discharged tomorrow, though.

---

And here's a picture of Amy's name (click to see the photo page, where you can also see larger versions):

Comments

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

I hope Stella feels better soon! Always a good moment when you see small children being able to write their names (Amy has it easy with her name, as it's very easy to spell - my nephew, Matthew, took a while to remember he had two t's in his name)! I wonder if the relative size of the letters are totally random or if it's related to how she pronounces her name - i.e. with more stress on the A & Y than on the M? It's probably totally random, but it just occured to me for some reason!:p

[pne.livejournal.com]

I think it's random and more related to her fine motor control (which isn't as reliable yet as she'd like - she complained to me the other day that she "can't draw proper faces").

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

Beautiful writing! Maggie writes her letter in the right order -- except she writes from right to left, so they read in reverse order! We'll get there!

As I recall, melanie had a near-anaphylactic reaction at a McDonald's several months ago. She blamed the shake. Poor Stella it's awful for meals to provoke anxiety, although certainly understandable if she's feeling unwell after them. Has she thought about getting allergy tests in order to try to identify the offender(s)? I hope she's doing better soon.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Has she thought about getting allergy tests in order to try to identify the offender(s)?

She got tested twice already - once by skin-prick test for various things just to see whether she had any food allergies (which told her that she was pretty allergic to hazelnuts), and once by blood test specifically for various nuts after the previous reaction to a peanut product where she already went to hospital (which told her that she was allergic to peanuts).

The thing is, the food information table on the back of the McD tray liner had a list of nutrition values and main allergens for each of McD's items, and listed peanuts only for their McChicken, and she had a Royale TS (that's a "quarter-pounder with tomato" for you, I think), which should be fine.

But peanuts can be insidious and can give reactions even in traces, such as could happen from inadvertent cross-contamination even if they don't explicitly put in any peanut products, so it's hard to tell whether it was a real allergic reaction or just an overactive imagination thinking there might have been some peanut in the meal.

[tungol.livejournal.com]

Eek, another reaction for Stella.

If you/Stella are interested, I'd be glad to share my experiences about dealing with a peanut allergy, what to be careful about, what to avoid, what strategies to use, etc.

My experience is that eating at restaurants safely is possible but inconvenient and unpredictable (i.e., I can't always predict whether a restaurant will have anything I can safely eat.) Elaboration available on request.

[entirelysonja.livejournal.com]

Yay for name writing!

[pne.livejournal.com]

Indeed!

I was pretty excited when she called me over to tell me she had "drawn an A", since her fine motor skills aren't that great and I'd never seen her write any letter on her own before, and indeed there was a pretty decent A.

(Poor Amy is now at the stage where her aesthetic sense has developed more quickly than her fine motor skills, so that she realises that what she can draw is fairly far from what she wants to draw -- previously, she'd give things her best attempt and would be satisfied, but now she's occasionally frustrated that "can't draw proper faces", etc.)

Then she decided to go on and write an M and a Y, which I saw her draw (well, I didn't catch most of the M until it was finished).

It was interesting to see how she drew them, since they didn't follow how we wrote them but seemed to be an attempt to reproduce the finished version instead: the M, I think, was three vertical lines topped off by a little horizontal one (she's best at vertical lines for some reason, though she can't always control the length).

And the Y was the vertical line in the middle, starting from the junction point; then the top right arm, starting from there; and then the top left arm, also starting from the junction.

Which obviously makes it easier to ensure that all three lines meet, even though we usually don't make strokes when writing letters that start going upwards.

But hey! It's the results that count!

[leighbug]

I hope the doctors can figure out what's wrong with Stella.

And yay for Amy! That's too cute.

[schnurble.livejournal.com]

*hugs*
Glad that it doesn't seem to be serious. Good wishes for Stella!
And Yay! for Amy writing her name!

[musicus.livejournal.com]

Hope Stella feels better, give kind regards