Mystery Hives

To all my loyal followers (I think there's 4 of you now!), as well as those who happen upon my blog by chance, I would sincerely like to apologize for the lack of posts. Spring is busy for us, and as the title suggests, I'm about to call in Scooby Doo and the gang to help solve our mystery...hives!!!

It was Easter sunday, we had attended a few small family gatherings, and closely monitored not only what Connor ate, but also what everyone else was eating around him. By now, my mommy senses are pretty keen, and both grandmas had consulted me on menu options, so I was pretty confident the day could be enjoyed by all. In true Connor style, he wanted no part of the foods prepared especially for him, and instead went for his old standby - hot dogs and Oreos. Like a college kid lives on Ramen, my toddler lives on Oreos and hot dogs. Strangely enough, he's still small for his age/height. Do you have any idea how big I'd be if I gorged myself on hot dogs and Oreos everyday????

Back to the mystery. While visiting my mon that afternoon, Connor had been digging at his arm, and after closer inspection, we figured it was a contact reaction, such as cat hair or dog licking. Gave him some Benadryl and all was well. Fast forward through the evening, we get him ready for bed, and put him down for the night. Or so we thought. He kept whining and squirming for over 2 hours, which is not normal for him. I went to check on him, noticed he was scratching again, and unzipped his jammies to find he was absolutely covered in hives. Keep in mind this is a good 8 hours after he last ate, and that was safe food. I was ready to call the nurse line or take him to the ER as we had never seen hives present on him like this. My husband said to give him Benadryl and see what happened. He didn't seem to be having any respiratory distress, so I reluctantly decided to monitor at home for a while. About 20 minutes later the hives subsided, so we changed him and his bedding and he was fine for the rest of the night. I wanted to make an appointment with the allergist, my husband disagreed, saying it was an isolated incident. I made the appointment anyway, and when I told my husband the next afternoon that the hives were back, he agreed Connor needed to be seen. Now, I don't make it a habit to go against what my husband says, but I am Connor's primary caretaker, and I'm the one who deals with all of the issues surrounding the allergy, so I think (and my husband is in total agreement) that I have complete carte blanche when it comes to Connor's allergy care, simply because I know more about it, the reactions, the connections, all that good stuff.

We couldn't get in for four days, but I caught the doc before he left that Monday and he had me do an aggressive round of Benadryl and steroids to keep him under control until he could be seen, and he asked me to bring the photos that I had the presence of mind to take as documentation. Four days, $550 (insurance covered a good chunk of that) and a few dozen allergen pinpricks later, we had no idea what was causing the hives. Or why they show up so randomly. We were instructed to give him an anthistimine daily, and we were given a standing order for children's oral prednisone for when he gets really bar. Now prednisone is a nasty drug, both in terms of taste and side effects, but they have a new chewable children's version that tastes way better (and costs WAY more!). So for now, we're managing, but the mystery deepens...

Yesterday he was covered in itchy little pinprick bumps, not hives. What the $#%*?!?!?!

Connor Update

I apologize for not updating sooner, but there was really not a lot to update on. The test results we were waiting on FINALLY came back after a little more than two weeks of waiting, which, if you've ever waited on important test results you know it feels like an eternity. Only problem was the expensive blood test that we had to have done said he wasn't allergic to peanuts. Or eggs. Time to jump for joy, right? Wrong. Anyone who's ever dealt with allergies and allergy testing knows it's not that easy.

With peanuts, there are six different proteins you can be allergic to. They tested for one. No wonder it didn't show he was allergic, there was only a 1 in 6 chance that they were testing for the right protein. And they didn't even test for eggs, so of course the level of IgE was zero. So where do we go from here? Back to the drawing board? No, not quite. Back in the car, out to Tigard to pick up a vial, then to the office where they do the actual blood draw, back to the allergist's office again, then back home to wait. And wait. And wait. Again.

After what seemed like forever we finally got some answers. Connor is allergic to a strand of peanut protein that he could possibly grow out of. Yay! If he doesn't grow out of it by age 5 or 6, then we'll know it's a life-long issue. Boo, but yay for knowing at a relatively young age if it's going to last forever. And he is allergic to egg whites, with significantly higher IgE levels than with the peanut test. So I'm assuming that means he's more allergic to eggs than to peanuts, but I'm not 100%. The plan is to re-test every year to see if the IgE levels go down over time, which is a good indicator of how likely it is that he'll grow out of the allergy(ies). But the good news is we made it through the holidays without any reactions, and are coming up on the 1-year anniversary of when we became PA parents, so far without any reactions that required more than benadryl. In addition to the peanuts and eggs, the initial test results showed that he's allergic to milk, which was shown on his skin test at his first visit, cats, and dogs. Dogs. After the skin test said he wasn't, the allergist suggested we get a dog to be around him so it could help bolster his immune system. Now we've adopted this dog, whom we've grown quite fond of, and Connor is actually allergic? Turns out he's only allergic to Max's saliva, so if he gets licked he breaks out, but it's only a contact reaction and not systemic or anaphylactic. So we get to keep the dog, and just have to try to keep him from licking, which is sometimes a challenge!