Allergist Appointment

[Anonymous]

Hi All!

Well, Dagney had her first allergist appointment on Friday. I’d put it off for a while, but it’s a good thing we went when we did. Everyone there was so nice, and Dagney was very comfortable in the office with them, I’m happy we didn’t try this when she was still having her doctor-fears a few months ago!

We started off in the doctor’s office, talking to him about all our concerns and her history. Since she hasn’t had any recent issues with most foods, he wasn’t concerned at all that she’d have milk/soy, so they didn’t even bother testing for that. After we talked to the doc, we went into a room for the actual testing, and they let Dagney choose a movie to put on, so we watched Nemo. Then the nice lady came in and cleaned off her back and put 2 blocks of 8 needles each. It was quick, she wimpered, cried a second, but quickly got over it. A few things blew up immediately, but we had to wait for 15 minutes for the real results. Once those results showed what groups she had allergies to, then they did 13 individual needles on her arm! THAT was not a lot of fun. I had her on my lap, another nurse came in to distract and help hold her, and the first nurse gave the shots. She cried for that, but really was a trooper and got over it fast. We watched 15 minutes more of Nemo, and then saw what those results were. And, of course, she got some stickers.

Finally, we went back to the doc’s office to talk, and he said her results were “impressive”. Normally, I’d be happy to hear that, but not so when it’s coming from a pedi allergist!! He said most allergies don’t begin to show until kids are at least 3, and they rarely have kids as young as her with so many strong allergies (he actually said months will go by that they don’t have kids her age like that). Her big ones are dog/cat, trees, grass, and ragweed. Pretty much all year long she’s screwed!! At least 3 times he said how he couldn’t stress more how we should not have any haired animals in our home, it would really be a risk. (We miss our wonderful little dog we lost last year, but thankfully we don’t have to make that decision now, and I had a feeling she’d have the dog allergy since we went to my sister’s house last week and she broke out in hives w/in 10 minutes of touching the dog dander.) He also said that since she’s so young with so many, she may get more as she gets older. Great. She’ll be living in a bubble! The good news is that he didn’t see any reason to hold back on the transition to milk and she doesn’t have a tomato allergy, so once she’s fully on milk, we can trial that again. (He said often tomato issues are intollerances which are outgrown by 2-3–where have I heard that before?!) He did say that since she is such an allergic person, we should wait until age 3 for nuts and peanuts, and he wouldn’t suggest trialing them before doing testing for them. I’m ok with that, don’t want to mess with that one.

As for treatment, I think they said that they don’t do allergy shots until age 5 or 6 or thereabouts. We’re just supposed to keep her on the Zyrtec when we need it, and he said if that’s not working, we can get a prescription nasal spray for her as well.

All in all, I’m really glad we went, and glad we now know exactly what to look for, and that we really can’t get another dog any time in the foreseeable future. I kept putting off going in the spring because I would have had to have her off of her Zyrtec for 1 week, and it’s a good thing we did that! The whole experience wasn’t horrible either, the first round was a quick prick, and the 2nd round went far quicker than I thought it would, so it wasn’t as bad as I feared it could be. We’ll be going back in September for a follow-up, and we’ll see what happens then–at least it will be far less painful for Dagney!

dfb052008-08-05 20:55:03

[Anonymous]

Denise that is great news. Cooper has his appointment next Weds and I am terrified that we will have to dog issues as well and we have 2 dogs right now! Anyway we have to be off Zyrtec for 10days so we are already off and poor thing is sneezing like crazy for the last 2 days so I know there is something there. I am lucky that we still have Singulair to hold us over until we see the doc. I am glad that your appointment went so well. Do you mind me asking how long it all took? We were told 3hrs, but I have heard of some that went to 5hrs… which would not be good for us. Thanks again for the update. I have been thinking about you guys.

[Anonymous]

It took total about 2 hours, maybe 2 1/4 hrs. We had an 830 appt and we left there about 1030 or so. They had told us it could be 4-5 hours, but luckily it didn’t take that long! Good luck with Cooper’s visit next week, and keep us updated!

[Anonymous]

Wow, Denise, isn’t it so odd that after all the worrying and struggling that you all went through in her early days with finding the right food for her, now the food wasn’t an issue! That’s crazy to me. But that really stinks that she has so many environmental allergies. I’m glad to hear that you’ll be able to start milk again soon. That should certainly make life easier for you all.

Keep us updated on how she is doing. I’m thinking that we will be seeing the allergist soon too. Something’s still not quite right with Ben, and we can’t figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Wow, I’m impressed at how conclusive the results were! How fantastic for you to not have the play the guessing game so much anymore! I hope that her environmental allergies can be controlled. We cannot have any pets because several close family members are HIGHLY allergic and we enjoy their company.

I hope your milk trial goes well and it was great to hear an update from you guys!!!

[Anonymous]

Denise,

I am so glad to hear that you got some definitive news at the allergist! No more guessing! Kaden goes next weds also and Landen goes the last weds of the month. Do allergists only work on Weds BTW?? lol

Sounds like Dagney was a real trooper! I hope that going forward she won’t suffer as bad b/c you’ll know how to treat the allergies. 🙂

[Anonymous]

I am glad you have some anwers. I hope the Zyrtec keeps her comfortable.

hugs

Leo

[Anonymous]

Dagney’s been ok up until now, but it seems like the ragweed allergy has kicked into high gear today. She’s miserable, runny nose, cranky, and not wanting to do much. I gave her Benadryl and will keep up the Zyrtec at night, but I’m going to call the allergist tomorrow to be sure. I’ve only been giving her 3/4 tsp of each, but i think we’re allowed to move up to 1 tsp now. My allergies have been horrendoous for the last week, and i really don’t want her to feel like I do, or still be affected on her birthday!!

[Anonymous]

Denise, Cooper’s ragweed allergy appeared this week as well (Friday). Our allergist stopped his singulair and added a nasal spray and told us to use Zyrtec as needed. But DH and I decided today that we are going back to Zyrtec in the morning and Singulair at night. I figured it worked with the pollen issue it should work with the ragweed issue too. I hope that this doesn’t go as badly for either of us as the whole pollen mess did. You can totally give her 1tsp of the benadryl (that is what we give Cooper when he gets it) and I know that as 2yrs you can give 1tsp of Zyrtec but she is so close I bet you are fine to start that as well. Good Luck.

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