Ever since this little "incident" in December, we've been in a state of confusion about whether it was definitely the peanut butter in the cookie that those two pesky M&M's touched that did Joshua in. According to the doctor, he says it's a "compelling story" and that he'd be "shocked" if it wasn't peanuts. Good. That's what I thought. I was a bit nervous that he was going to say, "Well, it could have been the peanut butter, or it could have been something else too." And then all of a sudden we'd be living in this tailspin of anxiety about everything that went through Joshua's lips.
Evidently skin testing can not be performed on a child as small as Joshua, which quite frankly I'm happy about. I've been through that, and it's about 100 shots up and down your arms and sometimes your back. I really hate the thought of putting him through that if it's not really necessary. According to Dr. Sutton, he can test for peanut allergy through a simple blood test (simple to the person who is NOT Joshua's mother and will have to help her little soldier be brave through a major stick). He also said that it would show the level of sensitivity to peanuts, which may (in a year or two) help us to know whether or not we should try very calculated reintroduction of peanuts and peanut products (ie. peanut oil) into his diet. He did warn me, however, that 90% of children who have peanut allergies go on to suffer with this for their entire lifetimes. I pray that Josh will be one of the lucky 10% who outgrows it. But the doctor reminded me of the "compelling story" of our trip to the ER....and then said he sounds more like the 90 than the 10. Rats.
So after our time with the doctor, which by the way thoroughly screwed up my day at the office (our 11 am appt didn't start until around 12 making it nearly impossible to get to my 1:00 appointment, so we had to reschedule that one), we decided to get the dreaded blood test over with. What a heartbreaker that was for this mommy. Joshua was a champ...I had explained what they were going to do, which he repeated to the nice nurse who swore up and down to me that he had done this many times on even smaller kids than Joshua (but I warned him that he had one chance...get it on the first stick or we were GONERS) that he would put some cold stuff on his arm, tie a band around his arm and then pinch him. He was fine until the pinch actually happened....and then he was TICKED off. Like, "Geesh, I knew you said pinch, but wasn't that a bit HARSH?" He cried all the way home, but I later learned that it wasn't because his arm hurt, but rather because they had put a Band Aid on him, which is a cardinal sin in the land of Joshua. How dare they? Once the dreaded Band Aid (which was "hurting me Mommy!") came off, he was all smiles.
In the midst of all this excitement, we realized that we forgot Bear at the allergist, so back we went to resuce him. Can we get any more drama?
As it stands now, everyone is safe and sound at home recovering....Joshua from his pinch and Bear from his abandonment. What a rough day. I'll end with a few pictures (hidden treasures) from two weeks ago before church. Joshua was reading to himself. Thought you'd like them.
I'll know the blood test results in a few days, so I'll let you all know what we find out.
1 comment:
This sounds like a long and tiring day. I was just having an allergy converstaion with another mommy this morning- her little lady is allergic to eggs and nuts. Think about how much stuff has eggs in it- yuck! We have our fun allegry testing at 9 months- since we are pretty sure she is allergic to milk- oh my!! I'll keep my fingers crossed that your test comes back with good news.
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