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!
