After the diagnosis, however, I wished I had requested tree nut testing, as well. My husband has a niece and nephew that are allergic to tree nuts so I knew there was a very real possibility that Tyler was, as well. Since then I have requested that testing be done. At each allergist appointment since then, however, something has prevented it.
After a little over 3 years of waiting, last week the BIG day. I was nervous. So was Tyler. This time he was old enough to know what was happening. Like any 4 year old, Tyler doesn't like needles.
In our home, we have a rule that if you do anything involving needles, you get a car from the movie Cars or a train from Thomas the Tank Engine as a special treat. Here is Tyler (with a smile on his face!) admiring his new car moments before testing:
Then the "fun" began. Anyone who has ever had a child allergy tested will certainly recognize this (I have no idea why the next 2 pix are so small since I took them with the same camera):
and this:
I was very optimistic that he would turn out fine. But genetics are stronger than a Mom's wishes. The verdict was not good. He had a mild reaction to nearly everything (including mold & dust that I also requested).
But the biggest shock was this:
That, my friend, is a cashew reaction! It was about the size of a half dollar (maybe even bigger.) The reaction was so bad it made him feel sick. He said his mouth and throat did not feel "funny" but he just didn't feel good. This prompted the allergist to give him some antihistamine and keep us a little bit for observation.
So the final verdict is a tree nut allergy. Nothing really changes in our home since we avoided them anyway. Still it is very disappointing,
As you can imagine there were lots of emotions that I encountered after the diagnosis. I will be back tomorrow to talk about all of that.
3 comments:
Oh Robyn, I am so sorry. It's always harder with more positive reactions. My son went in for peanut testing and came out with all sorts of things, even shellfish. I'm so sorry. :-(
So sorry for you and your son. I wanted to share how much I enjoy your blog, it is so nice to read your blogs and comments from people who "get it" when it comes to food allergies. My son's story is very similar to Tyler (they are the same age)--he was diagnosed with PA at 17 months after a severe reaction. Then he was just diagnosed at age 3 to tree nuts (his was a rection to Hazelnuts). We were so vigilant about all nuts even before the tree nut diagnosis, but it is still another diagnosis to bear.
Teresa
Sorry to hear about the tree nut allergy. I have been in and out of blog world a bit so I am playing catch up. My son's peanut allergy reaction was that bad. He was in so much pain and felt awful from the test. It tears your heart out to see a reaction like that.
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