We had another appointment with the allergist today after receiving Connor's blood results on Tuesday and being totally confused, I thought we had better consult with him this week so I could put all of this to rest. Brad has accused me of being a little over concerned, but I told him that he didnt go to the first appointment and see how concerned the doctor was. I went from wanting to know the exact allergies Connor had and concerned, to really concerned when we found out how many things he reacted to. When the nurse called on Tuesday and gave me the results, I was totally confused because it showed a few things that the skin test did not. They only tested him for several food items (mostly the ones that he has had a problem with) but also several others that I and the allergist thought were a little unnecessary. The blood test showed that Connor is allergic to (in order of severity):
Peanut (all tree nuts)
Egg
Milk
Wheat
Tomato
Corn
Soybean
Oranges
Apples
My initial reaction was "apples and oranges?" What in the world is this kid supposed to drink? That was before I talked to the allergist today. He looked at the results and basically said that Connors allergies to the tomato, corn, soybean, oranges, and apples was very mild and considered it safe to feed these to him. We have decided that we will go back to Soy Milk, which is a huge relief for me because this is what Connor had until he was 2 anyway. He likes it, so that should be an easy transition. He has gotten a little addicted to chocolate milk and it has been hard this week because he will ask me for it and I have to tell him no. It breaks my heart because he doesnt understand why. The doctor told us to totally avoid the top 4 allergies: Nuts, Eggs, Milk, and Wheat. I learned that food allergies and environmental allergies are totally different. Unlike environmental allergies you cant treat food allergies with shots or any other way. The only thing you can do is avoid it, which is supposed to help you grow out of the allergy to it. He has high hopes that he will outgrow most of this, except for maybe the nut allergy. His nut and egg allergy is severe so we must avoid these at all costs! This would be why Connor vomited one day after being given scrambled eggs. He said this was an anaphylactic reaction. Scary! He also told me to have the epipen at all times, which we have but I am sure there have been times when we have been without it so I must get better at that.) He advised us not to keep nuts in the house. This is bad news for my husband who is an addict to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! I guess we will have to hide this on the high shelf from now on. He also said that he doesnt think we need to do the drops next year and that we will probably just wait to do shots at age 4. The nasal spray has really helped Connor and I have not seen any signs of a runny nose all week! He told us that Connor's immunoglobulin E level was 473.1 and the normal range is 12.o! I kind of freaked, but he said that it was very normal for a child with eczema. His itching hasnt improved this week, but I think this will always be a constant battle that we deal with. He said that Connor was at increased risk of asthma with all of his allergies so we have to keep an eye out for that. I pray that doesnt happen!
Sorry this is a little bit of information overload, but now you will know how I feel! LOL I know several of you have expressed concern and have been praying and I want to thank you for that! It means so much to us!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Finally some much needed answers!
Posted by Tara at 10:03 PM
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6 comments:
We need to talk...Lake has spent the last month in and out of doctor's offices at Texas Children's hospital. He too is allergic to everything! The eggs were his most severe too, they gave us an epi pen and told us not even to give him foods with cooked egss in it....and his skin is horrible...everywhere we go people ask us about his "poison ivy"...His new allergist has him on 7 medications, I am not kidding....our poor little boys!
Brody has been deal with eczema REALLY bad on his face. It has even gotten raw on his cheeks. I have no idea right now of what is causing it. It looks horrible, then gets better. I have gone off of eggs, and dairy and there was no significant improvement. This is driving me crazy! Brock had eczema, but Brody has it bad
:( You are right, that is a lot of information that the doctor gave you. I will pray that Connor will outgrow it. That is what we are hoping for for Brody.
Oh goodness! I sure hope he does grow out of these. I will be praying for you all as you are going through this....
Tara, I am so sorry, I hope Connor does o.k. with all the transitions. I think I have seen Chocolate soy milk at the store. Heather's little one, Colton, drank soy for a while but did grow out of it, so hopefully Connor will too but Colton does have Asthma pretty bad now. We are also worried about the nut allergy with Sailor just because Joe is so allergic to nuts. We have avoided them to this point. Our pediatrician said not to try them until at least 2 years. Good luck and hang in there I guess things could always be worse.
You could buy Chocolate syrup to put in the soy milk :) My niece Bella LOVES chocolate milk, I couldn't imagine her reaction to not getting any!
Tara, Silk and 8th Continent both make a chocolate soy milk that is really not that bad. Colton actually liked it. Maybe that will help, and like Nikki said, Colton did grow out of his reaction to cow's milk and wheat. He is also allergic to shellfish, which we have not tried to give him because his reaction was terrible to shrimp and we just don't want to brave it just yet. I know how frustrating the allergies are and when you throw asthma into the mix, you feel like you could run a pharmacy out of your medicine cabinet. Hang in there, it will get better!
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