Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Day 0 - Desensitization decisions


May 21st
We had a long session at the allergist today - here's the lowdown:

  • His asthma is finally under control - YAY!  (insert cartwheels here!)  Sticking with the daily med for the long term as it seems to be really working. QVAR seems to be something that works for us.
  • We have a new allergy - boo - Hazelnuts (Nutella anyone?)
  • His body produced IGE in response to hazelnuts, pecans, and walnuts.  Anything over a 2 is considered an allergy.
  • Hazelnuts was about 2.5 - if that number goes below a 2, they'd do a skin test and if that was also negative would do a food challenge to see if he's allergic or not.  Not really an issue right now but just another nut we have to avoid from now on.  (sigh)
  • Pecans was about 4.5 - pretty similar to the numbers from Nov 2010.  Not his worst, we'll deal with this one later.
  • Walnuts was a 22.  Had to kind of laugh at that.  We might be looking at 3 years to get that number below a 2 on the IGE tests.  We'll just have to see how it goes.  In 2010 I think it was a 3.5 or a 4. Wow.
  • Next Tuesday (28th) I'll have him all day at the allergist to start the desensitization program.  I may be losing my mind in Brier Creek.  So if there's a mushroom cloud over that way, you'll know it was just me. :) 
Wednesday hopefully he'll be at the allergist for a few hours only. If that day goes well then we'll start doing the doses at home.  If not he'll be back at the allergist potentially Thursday and Friday mornings too.

Wish me sanity next week - wait ... wish me sanity every day.

3 comments:

  1. Hey, we got sent here by our mutual friend Dale. We are currently doing a peanut challenge in what appears to be the very same Allergist's office. Our little one has a .94 IGE for peanuts, which we were surprised to see (we didn't get a blood test when he was diagnosed 2 years ago). So we're extremely nervous and can definitely identify with your lack of sleep.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Neal :) I understand! It's a very scary beginning, but it seems to get easier each day and we are becoming better informed as we read about new trials and talk to more parents going through this. We have not done a challenge yet but I know it's hard to intentionally feed them something you know they might react to! Ugh. If the hazelnut # goes down we'll be doing a challenge on that one. Eventually we will have to test the efficacy of the walnut desensitizations with a food challenge but we're a long ways out from that for now. You have my empathy! I hope all goes well and that the challenge is a success (and a calm one at that!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another good resource Neal:
    http://community.kidswithfoodallergies.org/forum/main_forum

    ReplyDelete