allergy update

I was going to do a post with funny pictures today but for some reason emailing the pictures to myself is taking awhile. So I thought I would update you on Chase's allergies.

Monday we took Chase in to the allergist. I have a friend that has a child with allergies and sees the same allergist so I asked her what to expect at the appointment. From the paperwork and instructions they made it sound like he would be getting a skin test. I had heard from someone else and my friend confirmed my thought that they don't do the skin test until they are older.

Well, they did the skin test. I expected complete torture. He had several pricks on his back and then we had to distract him from itching for 15 minutes. Once again my little man blew my expectations out of the water. He was amazing.

The peanut allergy had been confirmed with a blood test right after his first encounter and reaction. He has no other food allergies. The skin test let us know he is pretty allergic to cats. He had a reaction to dogs and dust as well but I think we will be able to treat that with allergy meds.

Before the peanut encounter we thought Chase had seasonal allergies. Pretty much every time he went outside he would sneeze once or twice and then he was fine. Now that we know what he is allergic to there was probably dust, cat hair, and dog hair in the air. He usually had worse allergies when we went to visit my in laws but I always assumed it was just the pollen or weeds in that area. Nope, it was their dog and cats!

We take Chase back in September to discuss his tight airway. We are praying and don't think he has asthma but he does tend to get coughs and is taking a medication to help with his indoor allergies and cough.

In a year we will take him back to have his blood tested again to see what his peanut butter number is. It was 22 this time. We are praying it stays the same or goes down which might indicate he is growing out of it.

I think I'm doing better not blaming myself for his allergies. I've kind of accepted that there isn't anything I can do to change my son. Yes, life would probably be simpler if he didn't have allergies but things could be a lot worse. I will continue to count my blessings and thank God he gave me such a wonderful child.