Monday July 18, 2011
Tomorrow is Liam’s three hour oral food challenge.
The almond honey cake is laced with egg and ready.
His backpack is still empty and needing to be stuffed with supplies to entertain him for three long hours in a tiny exam room.
His scratch tests in early June were all negative except peanut, egg, and birch trees. Not even wheat or tomato showed up this time. Unlike our previous thought, he has very few true allergies.
Two weeks later we went back for patch testing. Instead of scratching his skin open in thirty different places, they just filled seven little wells with food, taped them to his back, and that was that. For forty-eight hours he wore wheat, tomato, pineapple, soy milk, milk, cocoa, and goat milk looking for a delayed allergic reaction.
There was nothing …. except for a rip roaring inflammatory response to the tape. His back was so red and painful under the tape it looked as though someone scalded him. But where the little wells of food had been were little circles of perfect skin.
We went home with instructions to start re-introducing foods.
Milk was first. By day three on two tablespoons of milk, Liam was up to three loose stools a day and enough gas blowing around to get our car to Hawaii. His behavior plummeted to the depths of somewhere relatively unknown since those horrible days of “before.” The meltdowns were innumerable and beyond ridiculous.
The past two days I gave him foods containing wheat. This afternoon, well, more bathroom talk.
The bad news: It’s not working and that’s pretty depressing.
The good news: Trace residual amounts of milk protein used to set him off with diarrhea and an inability to sleep. Now we get a partial reaction to two tablespoons. Maybe we can call that progress.
Tomorrow is the big one.
The potential for good news exists. We *might* actually eventually have a breakfast food for Liam.
The bad news: I don’t expect good news.
signed: the pessimistic grouch
I’ll be praying for you tomorrow.
That patch test makes me wonder…I guess I don’t understand that stuff very well, but shouldn’t it have done something to him, there on his back, like that??!!
Praying for a (relatively!) good day, and also that you might be able to get answers. That not knowing would be the worst for me.
I feel your dread and your pessimism and I haven’t dealt with this stuff as long as you have… I will pray for you! I love your honesty.
I’m both laughing and feeling sorry for you. Laughing at your sense of humour and feeling sorry for you on all sorts of levels. Entertaining a preschooler in a tiny exam room for three hours would look daunting under normal circumstances, let alone dealing with all these “allergies” and not getting answers. I hope so much that you and his medical team are able to find some. Prayers.
Prayers that you’ll have answers and prayers that you’ll breeze through the three hours of waiting!
i’ll say a prayer for you today…and, even tho’ i know! this is serious stuff, i had to chuckle at the ‘enough gas to get our car to Hawaii’ line. i can just HEAR you say all this! =)
Sounds so terribly frustrating and I probably don’t know the half… and poor Liam! Taking tape off my back with send me thru the roof!! I’ll be praying for you guys and that it would be clear where to go from here. ((hugs))
Hope you have a good day today!
I agree with what someone else sounds…sounds SO frustrating. I hope it goes well for you and for Liam and that you DO get good news.
By the way, did you ever find Adam’s report card?
I am sympathetic, really I am. Your humor though, I just sit hear laughing.
Enough gas to get your car to Hawaii??? 🙂 Hope you acquire some kind if wings along the way.
Seriously though, you and Liam are in my thoughts and prayers today. I wish I were able to come and sit there with you.
Prayers for you & Liam….that tape totally HURTS me just seeing it!! Hoping you’ll find answers!
Aw, Michelle… Hang in there! “Now the God of *ALL HOPE* fill you with ALL joy and peace in BELIEVING”! 🙂 Praying for you and hoping it turns out to be a gift of a day! ~Kendra
I’m sure it’s frustrating!! (especially since what you are actually experiencing is not what science is validating).
Praying that you will be blessed with patience and peace during this very crazy time.
I am currently being tested for food allergies using a blood sample. They will introduce a tiny amount of an allergen to a blood sample and watch the red blood cells under a microscope. The red blood cell response will determine the level of allergy. The Dr. said that a skin allergy test is not the best way to test food allergies. Perhaps a test like this is what Liam needs?
@migliore_amico – WHY do they all say something different? Liam had IgE testing when he was one. The allergist (now) says skin tests are the gold standard. I’m done with testing, frankly. I think we know enough to know we need to keep doing what we’re doing. Oh, and can I just also say that I HOPE you will find you have been miraculously healed!
@appalolly – No. Sickening, isn’t it. I asked for a carbon copy b/c I am the woman of no faith left.
@Jabber_wock – @foreveranoatneygirl_n2Hisown – @qawzse789 – humor is the best way to get through life. 😉