Allergy Testing Appointment

Hello everyone!

Quick version: the doctor appointment regarding allergy testing went very well today. Long talk with the dr, and did not need to be poked! :) His fevers are not an issue.

Now the interesting version!!! LOL

It all began yesterday when I talked to my supportive, Dear Husband on his way home from work. (we planned for him to come along to the appointment to help me and be supportive) It basically went like this:

Daryl, "Does Mason really have to go? You know I'm going to try talking you out of it during the appointment!!"

Shirley,"Should I call my friend to come along?"

Daryl, "We'll talk about it later."

So we got off the phone, and I immediately called my friend who had offered this help a month ago. Yes, she could come!! Last thing I needed was Daryl trying to derail what needed to be done!! It was GREAT to have her come along and help. Even though I (thankfully) didn't need help to hold him down to get pricked, she kept Mason busy so I could talk to the doctor without distractions. Which is huge.

So, because I know pretty much all the questions they're going to ask me, I had a two page brief history from birth to now written up. So when the doctor started to ask about Mason, I just handed it to him. It always makes the time and topics more efficient, and makes it clearer for the doctor to evaluate everything. I always do that when we see someone new, and have done a lot of documenting before surgery.

So regarding allergies: he does not have any allergies beyond the grass ones we saw in summer. Basically it is the doctor's opinion that the allergy medication is causing the seizure medications to metabolize slower in his liver thus increasing the dose in his blood system, as well as keeping it in his system longer, rather than having the liver eliminate it as efficiently. So I'm going to experiment a bit with giving him a lower dose and see if it will still help control the seizures while using the minimum amount of antihistamine. I will talk further with Dr Connolly at Children's Hospital in March.

Because Mason was not showing any signs of allergies, testing at this time is not necessary. We were in the appointment for 40 minutes with me asking a lot of questions, and I am very satisfied with the explanations.

Regarding the fevers that Mason has been having: Because they increase the seizures, I needed to check them out. This doctor ( a pediatrician/allergist) said that kids this age have an average of 1 or 2 fevers per month. That surprised me, because Mason is typically the kind of kid that gets sick once or twice per year!! But I think because he is now interacting with others a lot more (seizures are not putting him out of commission) he's catching the bugs that are going around! And the reason that he often does not get symptoms is that not all viruses have symptoms of runny nose etc!! So it's just a matter of getting the Advil into him quickly when the fever hits.

We also talked about a couple of other allergies: Mason (and Asia) used to be allergic to peanut butter - but NOT peanuts. The more natural the peanut butter, the bigger likely hood of breaking out into hives. The types with more additives like sugar, oils, etc (like Kraft or Jiff) would not cause a reaction. The doctor had never heard of this before. Both kids grew out of this allergy.

Then we talked about dairy. Mason can tolerate cheese, whipped cream, butter and a trace of icecream. But not milk and yogurt. (Mason used to not be able to tolerate any at all. Even the margarine in a cookie would cause severe runs out the back end) So we are going to try lactaid, to see if he is lactose intolerant as the doctor suspects. That would make life a lot easier. He's been on goat milk for 8 years, and we always have to check ingredients and watch out for everything.

Well there we go. That appointment went soooo much easier than I expected (especially after getting my supportive DH out of the way!!!!) Thank you to my friend M E for coming along on such short notice!! (Then we went for lunch mmmmm) Thank you to all of you who prayed. I got ALL the answers to my questions. I wish I could go for lunch with ALL of you!!

btw, Toilet Training is going EXTREMELY WELL!!!! That timer goes every 30 minutes and Mason jumps up and off he goes to the bathroom ('froom' as he says it). At home he's still in a diaper, but it stays dry nearly all the time!! :) :)

Well, TTFN!!

Shirley