Two-Year Blogiversary!

My daughter will be 5 years old next month, and her food allergies were diagnosed 3 1/2 years ago, and today marks 2 years since I started this blog!  I cannot believe how quickly any of those amounts of time have passed!

I was looking back at my original Introduction post, and thought I might quote a piece which explains the name of my blog.  The "Amazing" part is definitely my sweet angel baby, but this is the meaning behind the "Atopic" portion:

What does atopic mean, you ask?  Well, according to Wikipedia, "atopic syndrome is a predisposition toward developing certain allergic hypersensitivity reactions."  When I stumbled upon this Wikipedia page, I felt like I was reading all about the things she experiences.  "Atopy (atopic syndrome) is a disease characterized by a tendency to be 'hyperallergic'. A patient with atopy typically presents with one or more of the following: eczema (atopic dermatitis), allergic rhinitis (hayfever), allergic conjunctivitis, or allergic asthma. Patients with atopy also have a tendency to have food allergies."

I feel like we've made some progress over these years.  My daughter's eczema is relatively under control, especially in comparison to her early days.

Before we knew about her food allergies...

MUCH better!

I think back on her days of frequent nebulizer use and now I think about how it's hard to remember the last time we even used it.  It has been about 3 years since my daughter's last major allergic reaction.  I still have anxiety over issues we have yet to face, since she is still home with me, but I can see things are definitely improved from those first couple of years.

Even with all that has improved and as far up the learning curve I've climbed, I find it's sometimes like a sine wave, where we slide back down the curve when new challenges present themselves.  The good thing is, though, that I know I've made it up previous hills and there are so many helpful people out in the world, to assist in scooting us up along our next hill.

Source: Wikipedia

This blog was started in the hopes of helping others, as I felt I was left by our physicians to fly solo, with little to no guidance, and I am amazed at the wonderful community that exists out in the blogosphere, online support groups, etc., with so many to offer their support and knowledge.  

I am excitedly looking forward to meeting many of these fabulous community members at the Food Allergy Bloggers Conference, in a few weeks!  I know that I am incredibly lucky to be able to attend and if there is any topic that you would like me to bring up, or found out more about, during the conference, please send me a line.  You can follow my tweets, along with everyone else's, using the hashtag #FABlogCon.  

Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog.  I hope that I have been of some help and if you have ideas about how I may better assist you, please let me know.

(((HUGS))) TO YOU ALL!!