Sam’s Allergy Testing (Part 1)

Today Sam went in for allergy testing. Yesterday I asked for prayers on my blog’s Facebook page, and I have been overwhelmed with the care and concern. Some friends I know, some people I don’t even know. I am so humbled that many people care about our little guy.

I’m still 99% positive he is highly allergic to peanuts and milk (we’ve seen rashes, etc.) but we thought he may have outgrown egg, so we wanted to test, thus the reason for our visit.

Basically there are two kinds of allergy tests: skin prick test and blood test. With a skin prick test, they insert a small amount of the allergen under your skin. If you’re allergic, most likely you get a welt kind of like a mosquito bite (maybe large, maybe small). The results appear in a matter of minutes.

To be honest, I’m not completely sure HOW a blood test works. From what I have heard, it is more conclusive. I know that it gives you a number with how allergic to a substance you are. Sort of, anyway. You get a number, let’s say 10 to egg allergy. Anything from around 10-50 means that you are allergic to egg, but that you may be able to tolerate it baked (the proteins change when a food is baked). If your number is 10, you have a smaller chance of reacting than someone who has a number of 50. HOWEVER, you can still have a severe reaction. Both of you could have a mild or severe reaction.

Clear as mud?

Good. That makes two of us.

So as far as today. I guess in my wildest dreams/hopes, etc., they would do the skin prick and say, “wow, Sam, you’re not allergic to anything at all!” Go home and have an omelet! With cheese!”

Which didn’t exactly happen. There were some positives:

1. They were able to do the blood test today, on sight.
2. Sam was a total CHAMP during the blood test. Not even a whimper. He’s a little intrigued by modern medicine so he was watching the whole process, trying to guess how much blood would fit in the vials. Ha!

As far as the negatives, well, he is still allergic to egg, apparently. His skin prick was a medium size; she said he has close to a 100% chance of reacting to plain scrambled egg.

HOWEVER, it is still possible that he can eat baked egg. Once the blood tests come back in a week, if his number is good, we will try baked egg (in the doctor’s office in case of a reaction).

Sam has an amazingly good attitude about his diet. He has never complained. Ever. He will sometimes ask: “Mom, can I have this candy, etc?” If I say no, he just moves

While it is a huge challenge being his mom, I’m so grateful that God chose me to be his mom. Although I do get overly concerned (some might say helicopter-parent-obsessive), I try to make him all kinds of healthy, from-scratch yummy things.

It would just be nice if they could have egg.

🙂

I’ll keep you posted next week to let you know if we can even DO the baked challenge. I can only imagine how nervous I’ll be to do it! But it’s worth the risk.

Anyway, thank you all – friends, family, strangers, for praying for our little guy. The Lord’s hands are all over his life. We have known this from the start.

 

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