Finally Some Good News

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.

A World Of Allergies For Ryder

With all the goings on over the last few weeks, I haven't really had a moment to sit down and write about our recent allergy discovery with Ryder.  Brace yourself, it's a doozy.  So the Wednesday night before we left for SD I made one of my favorite dishes (beans, corn, and cottage cheese) for dinner.  I was looking forward to seeing if Ryder would enjoy it.  Boy was he... bite after bite into his mouth, until I started to notice that his face was swelling up and he had a red rash all over his chin and cheeks.  Then came the coughing and vomiting.  I was pretty sure he was having an allergic reaction to something he ate.  I cleaned him off and called the doctor's office.  They quickly determined that he was in anaphylactic shock.  The nurse instructed me to give him Benadryl... she said that if his appearance and breathing did improve within 3 minutes of giving him the Benadryl then I was going to need to hang up with her and call 911.  Thank God the Benadryl worked almost instantly.  His swelling started to go down and his wheezing stopped.  By far the most crazy scary thing I have had to deal with as a mom so far.  Being told by the doctor that we were very fortunate that our situation ended well is a very eye opening statement.  The next morning we went to the doctor's office so they could take some blood for an allergy test.  Then came the waiting and hoping that his allergy was to corn or beans and NOT to the cottage cheese.  A week later the doctor called me with the results... NOT good news.  Worse than I had thought it would be.  Severely allergic to dairy (cow's milk products), egg whites, and whey.  The even bigger shocker... mild allergy to peanuts.  All of the severely allergic items he could very well (fingers crossed) outgrow.  The peanuts, not so much.  That one is sticking around.  The doctor said that nut allergies tend to escalate and reach there max severity by 2 years of age.  So for now, there is no way to know if he will only have a mild peanut allergy, or end up with a severe peanut allergy.  At 2 he will be tested in the doctor's office to determine that.  He said until then to operate under the assumption that peanuts will send him into anaphylaxis and avoid them at all cost.  As for the dairy, no cheese, no butter, no ice cream, no cow's milk... to name a few.  I never realized how many things have cheese or milk in them.  Insane... and a huge pain in my butt.  It has been an overwhelming experience so far... I have been trying to do all my homework and learn as much as I can about alternatives to dairy and peanuts and all that.  When we get back to Texas we have an appointment with the doctor to go over everything more thoroughly, prescribe and show us how to administer an EpiPen, and get referred to an allergist so a more detailed allergy scan can be ran on Ryder.  Good times.  The bright side... we found these allergies early on... he can potentially outgrow some of them.  Hoping for the best possible outcome for our little man!

Seriously, who needs PB&J when you can have SSB&J.  Mmmm, so yummy.  Ryder actually really liked the sunflower seed butter.  I haven't tried almond butter or anything like that yet.  They are on my list of things to get for him to taste.