After a very rough day at the allergist yesterday, we finally have some good news. We are not out of the woods by any means, but after more thorough testing and an excellent allergist who educated me on the allergies Ryder has, I now feel ready and totally equipped to handle these pesky food allergies. So yesterday Ryder had the much dreaded skin testing done. He was pricked/injected with 9 different allergens... egg white, yolk, peanut, cows milk, soy, etc, etc... it really was one of he saddest things I have had to watch done to a kid. It hurt him so much that his toes were curling under and he was screaming while biting my shoulder. Our nurse was great, and fairly quick... so thankfully the pain didn't last too long. Next came the waiting... and more crying because he wanted to scratch his back... and then screaming because I told him no and held his arms down... awesome times. After about an hour of sporadic checking the doctor came in and read the results. As expected, positive to eggs and cow's milk/dairy... the good news, a shocking negative to peanuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnut!! As fantastic as this news is, the doctor said that since the blood work was positive and the skin test was negative, there is no real conclusive answer at this point. So we will wait and retest for nuts down the road. It is a good sign though. I am so thankful that something semi positive came out of that awful appointment. After the skin test they did a "food challenge" with Ryder. They had me bring in soy milk to the appointment so that they could give him some in the office and then monitor his reaction. This lasted for a couple hours. Ugh. They would come in, give him an ounce or two, and then leave. This just pissed Ryder off. He hadn't eaten all morning (doctor's orders for testing), so he was starving and teasing him with an ounce at a time was cruel. Finally the doctor came in and explained that everything looked good with soy. More good news! We can now switch from rice milk to soy, which is much fattier and closer to whole milk. Such a relief. So while this appointment wasn't fantastic, it really wasn't all bad. I now know exactly what to avoid and understand more about reading labels and recognizing what not to give him. I was also prescribed and shown how to administer an Epipen in the event that Ryder does get a hold of some sort of dairy or egg product. Knowing that I now have the proper tool to handle the next time he (God forbid) goes into anaphylactic shock is a huge relief. All in all I am feeling pretty optimistic about going forward with these food allergies. It will continue to be an adjustment, be we can deal. We got this.
His back shortly after he was pricked... green marker labeling each allergen.
He was in and out of it all morning. Our appointment was at 9a.m., we were not done until 12:30p.m. We were both pretty exhausted after that morning.
He really was a trooper... when he wasn't mad at me for not letting him touch his back, he was happily playing on the floor with his cars.
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