Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Allergy testing - Part 1
When you hear hoof beats think horses, not zebras. Well, maybe we should have been thinking about donkeys. Now that we have the results from Logan's skin test this morning, looking back on his food journal is like a slap in the forehead. DUH! While it wasn't completely obvious, I should have really analyzed the food labels closer & I probably would have seen & made the connection.

We went in early this morning (running late, as usual) with Logan sliding off my hip on one side & a huge notebook full of medical histories, previous IgE tests, copies of the vaccination reactions that I blogged about on here & records of eczema flare ups. I felt prepared to give the Doctor all of the information I could so he could make a complete diagnosis & provide the best treatment plan.

While getting checked in, Logan was not very cooperative & commenced with temper tantrums. I did find one distraction that literally saved everyone's ears from bleeding in the doctor's office. Motor Trend. We sat there turning pages with Logan saying "Car. Car. Car. Car" to every single car picture he saw. We counted cars, we named the colors of the cars. We talked about cars & trucks. We were called back to the exam room & I made sure to bring the magazine with.

After going over Logan's medical history with the nurse, the Doctor came in & we went over it again. We really focused on his vaccination reactions & he took a look at Logan's last IgE blood test (when he was about 2 months old with bloody, mucous filled stools). He said that the previous test wasn't very reliable & notorious for giving false results.

We discussed the skin test & all of the foods we wanted to try. It was hard to not want to try all of them (69 foods available) but I decided to try all of the foods Logan eats on a regular basis: apple, avocado, banana, carrot, potato, tomato, orange, oats, rice, wheat, peanut (even though he's never had peanut butter before), soybean, garlic, casein/milk & egg. Another nurse came back & numbered Logan's back with a ball point pen while he watched SpongeBob SquarePants. He totally flipped out while he was getting pricked because it hurt, but he was also forced to being confined on my lap. Which was worse than the pricks to him.

While we waited the 15 minutes for the test to take, I saw all of the hives begin to grow all over his back. Some were very small, a couple looked mean & nasty. They were really bothering him because he kept trying to scratch them. A couple of nurses came back in & measured his welts & determined what he was allergic to.

Garlic & Eggs.

Garlic I knew, but eggs? Really!? He doesn't like eggs, so he hasn't been eating them for months. He never had obvious reactions to it when I was introducing new foods to him when he started solids, otherwise we wouldn't be in this situation. It wasn't like garlic & egg plant (we didn't test for egg plant, but that one is very obvious). He ate yolk just fine without breaking out into hives shortly there after & when he started eating whole eggs, no immediate breakouts there either.

Yet, this answers so many questions. Like when we went out for breakfast after his 12 month checkup & vaccinations & he broke out; he ate eggs & garlic. When Aunt J & C were visiting this summer & we made scrambled eggs with garlic; he broke out everywhere (this is why we only thought it was garlic too). When we went out for lunch with some of our friends a couple of weeks ago, he stuck his fingers in my wasabi mayo & broke out in hives. All week long as I've been doing his food journal, there's been egg in almost every meal; eggo pancakes, english muffins, chicken dumpling stew...the kid has been ingesting some type of egg product almost daily. This is also why I thought it was wheat or dairy, because he wasn't "eating" eggs, but he really was.

The Doctor came in & we talked about the results of the test. He was very surprised that Logan was allergic to garlic & commented that he's only seen a few adults with this allergy. He wasn't going to test for it until I said that it was a suspected food allergy. So, I'm going to start eliminating all egg from Logan's diet (you wouldn't believe all of the products you can find egg in) & never cook with garlic again (boo. But it's not like I cook with it all of the time because it bothers Bill too). He gave me cream for Logan's eczema & decided that steroid creams were not right for him (thank God). Then we talked about the vaccination reactions some more.

He whole heartedly agreed with Logan's pediatrician about his 2nd month vaccination reaction. The culprit was definitely the Pertussis part & it was recommended that Logan never receive that vaccination ever again. Because of his egg allergy, it's not recommended that he get the flu shot either. To figure out more about the other vaccinations, the Doctor has to get single dose samples so he can perform another skin test. The scary part is when we were talking about this, the Doctor outright said that he hasn't done this test in a while & hasn't done many of them. He's also one of the top allergists not only in our town, but our state.

We go back in two weeks for part 2 of the testing, which is strictly vaccinations. At that point, we'll find out what vaccinations he may be allergic or sensitive to & proceed with the best treatment plan.

6 comments:

Wendy said...

I am so glad that you were able to get some answers! I just recently found out that Lani can't get the flu shot because of her egg allergy. I had never heard of that before. Do they know how sensitive he is to eggs? Lani can have them baked in, but no straight eggs, like in French toast or merangues (sp?)! I have never heard of a garlic allergy...good thing you tested that one.

Dawn @ Bent, not broken said...

oh thank god that you guys now know!!!!! That must have been driving ya nuts.

Joanna said...

Poor Logan...Good to know about the eggs though, they are in almost everything. Good luck on the next round of tests!

Kristin said...

Wendy-

We have to do a complete egg elimination diet. The poor boy can't even have ice cream! We even have to be careful when we eat out (not that we do anyway). We didn't have to get an Epi pen though.

Couldn't have surprised me more, that's for sure!

Erin said...

Thank goodness you were able to finally get some answers! I had some allergy testing done years ago and they found out I'm a bit allergic to eggs. Not really bad like Logan, but I'm not allowed to get the flu shot. I've never heard of a garlic allergy. Poor kid! At least now you know. Hopefully round 2 will go ok :o)

Tonia said...

I am so glad that you have some answers now. That must feel so good. Rece seems to have some reactions to certain things but his come in his diaper. He get terrible, awful rashes that hurt him so bad. I don't know if I should do any testing for them or not. I know he reacts to grapes. But recently we are seeing another reaction and we don't know what?? AAAHHH!!