Wednesday, July 16, 2008

So Glad Today Is Over (sigh)

Elena had her allergy appointment this morning and it was LONG. When I say long, I mean we were there for over 3 hours. And we pretty much left with the exact same information we had when we got there.
He began by doing 19 skin pricks on her back, including eggs and chicken (which we already know she is severely allergic to), several other foods (mostly grains and nuts), and a couple of environmental allergens. I drew some pictures on her feet just before the nurse wrote the grid on her back, so she thought the whole thing was kind of fun. She did extremely well with the actual pricking- no real crying at all! She just sort of complained for the last few. After 20 minutes, only the egg whites & yolks were positive. I was really surprised because we know for a fact that she is really allergic to chicken (breaks out of I even touch chicken and then put her food on her plate). And we had a positive chicken test 10 months ago.
So he retested the chicken and milk (because it looked like it was trying to be positive, which made no sense because she eats cheese on a regular basis with no reaction). She decided then that she had had enough and cried for those two pricks. But it was over quickly. After 20 more minutes, still no reaction.
Then they did 6 "interdermals" in her arm for dust mites and cats & dogs. This is where they actually use a syringe and push some serum into a pocket under the skin instead of just pricking. She didn't realize what was happening until about the 3rd one, but then it was bloody murder screaming. 20 minutes and no reactions.
Then they repeated the interdermals in the same arm with a higher concentration serum. 20 more minutes and no reaction.
When all of that was over (and we had watched the entire Finding Nemo movie, colored lots of pictures, read several books, had 2 cups of soymilk and come crackers, pushed cars around the room, played with a flashlight... at least noone can say I was unprepared, right?!), we got to go to a different room to talk with the doctor.
Basically he concluded the same thing he had said before we did this test. She is allergic to tree nuts or peanuts (or both) now. He said that negative skin tests are only 80% accurate, which means that, theoretically, 20% of negatives are not right. UGH! He read the ingredients on the granola bar that she has had a reaction to (ok, I will just tell you all- when she eats it, her bottom bleeds). It contains small amounts of peanut, almond and pecan. Everything else is grain, and since she tolerates Cheerios everyday without bleeding, it can't be that. He also said that she is obviously capable of producing false negatives given that her chicken test was negative this time, but she still has horrible hives when she is exposed to chicken.
Basically all of that is what he told me 2 months ago when I went in to see him with a granola bar wrapper and a little girl with a bleeding bootie. He said then that there was no reason to test her, it is the nuts. But that he would test her after she turned 2 if I really wanted him to.
I think I am just going to do my own home food trial of each individual ingredient in a really small amount to figure it out. I just hate to avoid ALL nuts (and things processed in factories where they process nuts, blah, blah, blah) if it is just almonds. Or just pecans. Or whatever! I'll keep you posted...

2 comments:

Willow said...

I was in my 30's when I finally found out after years of misery, that I am lactose intolerant. Can't drink milk, ice cream, cottage cheese, but can eat cheese. I agree with your try it theory, just keep a good list and a lot of A&D ointment. How did your test go?

McCullough Family said...

UGH!!! So sorry for sweet Elena (& mommy) to endure all of that with no results. What a strong litle girl she is.