allergies take 2

Doesn't feel like it has been all that long ago that I wrote about Max's allergies and now we're going onto child #2!! Lately Mya has been really stuffy and had some crazy puffy, watery eyes, etc. So, last Thursday after she had been off of anti-histamines for 7 days I took her to the allergist to have her tested and to see what our plan for her should be. When I told the doctor that I wanted her tested for seasonal allergies he thought she was a little young to have seasonal allergies. Then I whipped out my phone and showed him the same picture I posted on the blog with her puffy eyes and he agreed that we definitely needed to test her.

Just as he was walking out the door, I asked that we test her for peanuts too. I had a suspicion that she was allergic, but was really hoping that she just hated peanuts. Every time she got something in her mouth that contained peanuts, she would stick her tongue out and freak out until I wiped her tongue off. She never had any reaction other than wanting them off of her tongue. He agreed to test her.

Here is a picture of her back less than 90 seconds from when they poked her with each substance. You can see that she reacted pretty quickly. Her allergies are dust mites, cats, dogs, ragweed, mold and unfortunately the P in the lower right is for peanuts:( She was very uncomfortable right away with crazy itchiness so they did not leave it on for the entire time. the picture below that is when they wiped off the marker. The big bump in the middle is ragweed which is at an all time high this year so that explains a lot.

We're pretty bummed about the peanuts. It's not something I was completely shocked by, but I was just really hopeful that it would be negative. At the elementary school that she will go to, kids who have peanut allergies have to sit at a separate table during lunch and I just hate the thought of her having to sit away from her class. I know it's best for her, but it's still not a fun thing to think about.

Luckily for us, she has such strong ill will towards peanuts that she already asks everyone before she accepts food or candy if it has peanuts in it. The allergist also said that he diagnoses a peanut allergy every single day. Crazy. I don't think I knew one kid who was allergic to peanuts growing up. Not sure why all of a sudden they are everywhere!

When Mya got up on the table for the exam, the doctor also pointed out that line on her nose. I can't remember what he called it, but basically he was saying that people with severe allergies have that line because they are constantly itching their nose and a line forms.

A positive thing to come out of this is with the proper treatment, Mya is sleeping like a baby. Chris has been checking on her at night and she's sleeping soundly and you can hardly hear if she's breathing or not which was not the case just a few days ago. Poor thing...wish we would have done this months ago!