Since the egg allergy's progression was really concerning us, I made an appointment for Connor to see his allergist to find out what was going on. They had originally predicted that he would outgrow the egg allergy by his first birthday, but now, at almost 15 months old, his egg allergy is getting more sensitive and the symptoms are more severe. The doctor really didn't know why it was doing that, and he told us that it wasn't common for this to happen. I had a list of questions with me, many of which the he didn't have the answers to. And don't get me wrong, we are very happy with our allergist, and it wasn't because of a lack of interest or knowledge that he didn't have the answers. He suggested further testing to find out exactly what was going on.
We also discussed Connor's respiratory issues. He asked if he's ever had croup or bronchitis, which is a common thing among young boys, especially those with allergies. I told him that this winter he had two or three different bouts of croup and has been treated a few times for early bronchitis. He gave us some Singulair to try the next time he has a cold. He says that if we give him the Singulair once a day at the first signs of a cold it can help keep the virus from going to his respiratory system and help prevent croup and bronchitis. He gave us some sample packs to try, and if it works we have a prescription that we can fill later. Hopefully that will make this coming cold and flu season a lot less eventful than the previous one. ER visits, nebulizer treatments, antibiotics, doctor's appointments, sleepless nights, will hopefully not be nearly as frequent for us this time around!
So back to the testing that the doctor wanted us to do. He suggested getting a comprehensive blood test done to find out exactly what's going on now and what we can expect for the future. I'm not sure exactly what the test is called, I don't know if it's the RAST test or a different one. Apparently there's only one lab in the country that does this test, so we have to wait two weeks for the results. I'm not overly thrilled about that, but the wait will definitely be worth it in the end. We had to go to a lab down the street to have the blood drawn, and it took myself, my daughter, and a nurse to hold him still long enough for the other nurse to draw the blood. Thankfully they only took a tiny little bit, because he was not happy about having to be held still, and I wasn't happy about having to hold him. We took the blood back to the allergist's office, and they were having it FedExed overnight to Michigan to the lab where it would be tested for 150 different things. We should find out exactly what Connor's allergic to, which strains and proteins of each allergen, egg yolk or egg white, or both, if he's likely to outgrow his peanut allergy and if he's allergic to the protein that causes severe reactions or one that we can possible treat with exposure therapy when he gets older. So all in all the test is a going to be a good thing to have, I just hate that it takes so long to get the results.
This is going to be a long 2 weeks...
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