E’s appointment with his allergist took most of the day on Friday. I got stuck in the backup from a traffic accident on both the way up and back from Salt Lake. On the way up it wasn’t so back, only about 25 minutes. But on the way home I was in stop-and-go traffic for over an hour with a cranky, tired, hungry E. The only thing between us and insanity was a bag of Skittles I had put in the car for such an emergency. By the time we got home he was covered in a layer of sticky brownish grime from the colors melting together all over his face and hands. As soon as we pasted the wrecked my irritation evaporated, though. It was pretty bad. Among the crunched cars there was a flipped minivan that was torn up really badly. I wondered if there had been kids in there. And I realized that dealing with a cranky toddler for an hour was infinitely better than whatever than whatever the people in that van were dealing with right then and maybe for the rest or their lives. (Just checked, sadly someone did die.)
But about the appointment itself: there were mixed results. Last year we found out that E is allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, and a bunch of other nuts. The doctor (who is really great–let me know if you ever need a recommendation) wanted us to also avoid all seafood because it is also highly allergenic. So this year we retested his blood to see if his allergies had changed.
The bad news: E is somehow more allergic to milk than he was last year and his egg allergy stayed the same.
The good news: E’s peanut and nut allergies went down dramatically. He’s still very allergic to them, but at least they went down which gives me hope that he can continue to outgrow some of his allergies. And E is not allergic to seafood so we can start giving it to him. I think one of the first seafood recipes I’m going to try is this one from my sister-in-law Mindy who is a great cook.
The doctor and I were kind of disappointed about the milk and eggs. She said that normally if kids outgrow something it’s usually milk or eggs so it’s usual that E’s peanuts/nut allergies came down instead.
The plan for the next year is to continue avoiding all milk, eggs, and peanuts/nuts and then do his bloodwork again when he turns three. She said that by the time E is four or five and can articulate if he’s having a reaction then they’ll probably had the protocol for oral desensitization worked out and he can start on that. While we got mixed results I’m trying to look at them positively.
sorry about the good news, happy about the good. You are an incredible mom to that little E. I know his happiness is worth it, but working out a diet around his allergies has got to be rough. I hope things do get better in the years to come.
I meant sorry about the bad, obviously…I guess I was trying to focus on the positives as well=)
Allergies are such weird things. I've recently developed weird allergies here and there… but then they seem to go away… The science lab at my old job had people who were working of allergy-related studies. My ex who does have hay fever donated blood drops (not out of goodness of his heart but for the research money… and, for the record, was a HUGE baby about the pin-pricks… 😀 Thought I should add that) and when they analyzed the blood samples, specific enzymes they needed from people with allergies showed up. LONG story short… I hope E's allergies do simply fade away and become a childhood memory.
So, that accident was cause by a man having a stroke/heart attack and he couldn't lift his foot of the gas to break… He died in the crash and was the dad of one of the BYU Ballroom Dance Team guys, who was competing in DanceSport when it happened. I found out about it from my dance teacher. Friday night after the Showcase the team got together to say a prayer for the family. It kinda was an eye-opener for all of us who competed about how fun, but not important DanceSport is.