Below are some sad sad pictures.
This week has been pretty uneventful. Probably on account of the fact that after feeling better on Monday, I went down hard with what I am assuming was some kind of flu bug on Tuesday morning. Paul had to call in sick cuz I literally could not move out of bed. Our New Year's Eve plans got ruined (still sad about that) and I basically slept for almost two days straight. I only emerged Thursday morning in time to take Carter to his allergist. I was very anxious to find out more about his allergies and what to watch out for.
First thing the doctor asked me when he sat down was to tell him how he encountered his peanut reaction. I told him how it happened and that the blood work came back that he was also allergic to this list of other things. He looked at the report and then asked me to name what they told me he was allergic to. And besides the peanuts, he basically said no to everything else. He said his blood work showed up with these additional foods because peanuts are in the legume family and so were most of the other foods I was told he was allergic to. So because he was allergic to peanuts, the blood work would naturally show up with these other allergens as well. He looked at him, listened to him breath and said….he looks like he has hay fever. He asked me if he was always congested and I said yes, pretty much. And he asked me if he always had dark circles under his eyes, and I said yes, pretty much.
So, at that point I pretty much knew they were going to want to do a prick test on him. I had been through it before with Ashlyn when she was barely 3 and it was a horrible experience. And she came back with NO allergies. So I was ready to resist at all costs. However, Carter's doctor told me they do it differently from when Ashlyn had it done and he even demonstrated on me and Carter's arm, so reluctantly I agreed. ONLY because I knew it was in Carter's best interest that we find out what individually he was allergic to and the prick test was the most reliable way.
Two girls had a set of eight allergens in each hand (on little poker tips if that makes sense). They both stuck his back all at one time. So 32 pokes for about 2 seconds. (much better than 50 individual pokes Ashlyn received). It's not a deep prick, but enough to get under the first bit of skin. He cried of course and wanted to itch at his back, but I distracted him pretty quickly with my phone and blew on his back to keep him from touching it. Then we had to wait for 15-20 minutes. It was amazing how quickly the results started to show up. WAY different than when Ashlyn had it done and there was virtually no difference after the allotted time.
This was maybe 2-3 min after they poked him. A little red from the pokes and the specific "allergen" is in the kind of jelly type liquid. I know…I have all the right technical terms. I'm sure the doctor calls it jelly stuff too.
This picture was taken about 10 minutes into our wait time. You can see the bottom right is really starting to flare up.
This was after 20 minutes and they had already wiped off his back and put calming cream on it. You can see that just about every dot is at least inflamed some with the bottom right being the worse. That would be his nut allergy. So, yes definitely allergic to peanuts.
The rest are grasses and trees and molds. And the things his pediatrician said he was allergic to still also showed up, but his allergist said they were not at clinically significant levels. Lesson learned…..always go to a specialist. Pediatricians are fantastic in their own aspects, but if you have serious issues, specialists are the bomb!
So really most of his stuffiness and puffy dark eyes are related to hay fever. Wish I would have figured that out earlier. His doctor put him on once a day singulair and a dose of claritan at bed time. We go back in one month to see if it helps. He said if he was wheezy, he would consider him asthmatic.
He still has to go for more blood work to determine what specific nuts (if any besides peanuts) that he is allergic to. I'm hoping none. Then his doctor recommended a newer type test that looks at his peanut allergy at the molecular level. I guess this is suppose to help me know exactly what his reactions are and how severe they are. It's not covered by insurance, but I think it's something we'll definitely be doing in the near future.
So…it's really wonderful to know we don't have to stay away from most of the foods I thought I was going to have to stay away from, especially soy since it seems to be in everything. Although I am sure I will be cautious when letting him try new things. He may not be allergic to them, but he may have sensitivities to look out for.
And this is just to prove that later that day he was in fact back to his happy self and enjoying some ice cream at Foster's Freeze. Don't know what was wrong with Brandon, but the rest of the kids were happy. Maybe it was because his french fries hadn't shown up yet. Haha…
More details to follow.
OH and just so you don't think my kids New Year's was ruined also, Paul did a fabulous job at entertaining them and taking care of me too. He took them to McDonald's and to the park. And then brought out the Sparkling Cider and celebrated with the ball drop at midnight (New York time). Then the next day, he bravely took them all to the Glendale Galleria to go to the Lego store and spend the rest of their Christmas money. I'm sure a treat was included and a stop at the play area as well. So they had a great two days with non stop playing with Daddy. I think Paul may have been ready to go back to work come Thursday morning.
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