I’m sorry, did you say something?

Oct 07

Posted by: Rachel in: blog, caleb isaiah, me myself and i, parenting, ramblings, rants, who wants to read this?, you might be a mom

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Come over here and tell me again in my good ear.  I lost my hearing on my left side.

Yeah, so I took Caleb in for allergy testing this morning.  Actually, let me back up.  On several past occasions, he has had a reaction to eggs.  Now all three times, they were in totally different forms.  Once was just regular scrambled eggs when he was a little over a year I think.  Immediately came back up along with whatever he ate before it.  Once was French toast, and once was whipped egg whites on top of banana pudding.  Red splotchiness around his mouth and it always came right back up.  So at Caleb’s three (and a half, so I’m a little late) year check up, the pediatrician assumed (without even asking) that I wanted the flu shot that we’ve never gotten before.  Not to stick my nose in the air, but it was September 2008 at his appointment, and it was our first time being there since March 2007 (for his 2yr well checkup).  So for the third year running, I planned on declining the flu shot (as I have with several other vax - way different post for another day).  I just let it go, and listened to the pediatrician as she rambled on about going to see an allergist.  Why not, I thought, then we’d know for sure if it was a reaction or his sensitive gag reflex with different textures. Forgot to add, the flu vaccine has trace amounts of egg in it - I guess the two sounded completely unrelated without that knowledge.

So the pediatrician called me a few hours later -in the super loud children’s museum of course- to let me know that she had so graciously called and made us an appointment.  Gee thanks for letting me check my schedule, asking what time of day…  Whatever.  Luckily, there happened to be an allergist not only in our town, but so close that we could have actually walked faster than we drove.  Literally.

We went in this morning, to get tested for egg allergy.  She asked me a bazillion questions totally unrelated to eggs/food.  She then said, he was going to be just as mad about us doing one verses ten, so maybe we could do a few others while we were there.  She rattled off maybe four things.  So, since four plus one is five…this would naturally lead you to assume five or six things, right?

So in the come with THIRTY THREE little prickly tests.  Milk?  You want to test him for milk?  He drinks two gallons a week.  Seriously, I think Scott helps a little, but I would bet Caleb’s intake accounts for 75%+ of that consumption.  She had a counter reason for every one I suggested marking out.  I got fed up and said lets just get it done.  The nurse asked if I had a problem with them holding him down.  I asked to hold him instead.  Like I said, this is when I lost my hearing on the left side.  I closed my eyes and prayed for them to hurry up so I didn’t cry.  Having my child looking at me with tears streaming, screaming “Stop dat hurwts” is not how I planned on spending my morning.  His back now looks like he got in a fight with a cat because it is impossible to hold a child still when you’re doing something like that.  So several of them scraped across his back.  Blah.

He couldn’t even breathe when they were done, and almost deposited his breakfast on me.  It really helped that the nurse absolutely sucked with children.  She asked me if he had some horrible experience with a doctor in the past.  Um hello, kids don’t like people they don’t know touching them.  I don’t think that is unusual.

I, personally, think it was a lot of drama for not so much information.  Out of the 31 they did, they came up with positive ones on a few of the molds and dusts, and so they say, dog.  If you go huff dust, do you sneeze?  Me too.  She was saying he shouldn’t be playing in the grass because that made him stuffy.  “I’m sure you notice that when you come inside, right?”  Um, that’s another no.  And he would live outside if I let him.  They gave him a prescription for Claritin and some nose spray.   Cause kids love nose spray.  It is still, in my non medical mom intuition opinion, overkill.  Oh and they want me to get a dust cover for his pillow and mattress.

So anyway, it sucked.  Yay.

Edited to add: Ah yes, Andrea reminded me, in being so flustered I forgot to add, no egg allergy showed up.  I believe that he had an allergy that was outgrown (egg is a common food allergy for children that is outgrown by 3-5)

Comments

4 Responses to “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

    Amber
    October 7th, 2008 5:05 pm

    Were they charging you by the stick? He didn’t seem to have any problems when Wynnie was covering his face with kisses. Thanks for the math lesson - perhaps you should have given it to the doctor! LOL

    Andrea
    October 8th, 2008 9:14 am

    So…..you didn’t say…..was he allergic to the eggs?

    Val
    October 8th, 2008 1:09 pm

    Poor Caleb :( Hopefully his back is doing much better now. That is really awful.

    As for the vaccines….please, please, please tell me you are another neurotic Mother in the peds office. I really don’t want to be the only one!

    Julie
    October 8th, 2008 11:14 pm

    Ugh! Poor both of you! We did an allergy test on Daniel for area trees last year. They weren’t good with kids, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as you described. I feel for you both!!! (We have done other doctor, dentist and bloodwork appointments that were NIGHTMARES.) Waaaaa! I hope everyone has recovered.

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