A brave little girl

Today I took Olivia for the dreaded "skin test".  She has had issues with allergies for years.  Granted she's only 5, but between her asthma and our being convinced that she was, at the very least, allergic to soy bean oil, it was getting really hard to feed her.  And then I thought she was allergic to milk because she broke out in hives after having it a couple of weeks ago.  Well, today was the BIG day.

The allergist was really nice too, so she put me Olivia right at ease.  The test consisted of a total of 48 pricks on her skin.  6 sets of 8 different allergens.  They did the four sets on her back all at once...one nurse on each side.  Then they did the set on her arms at the same time, again one nurse on each side.  And then we had to wait.  And keep Olivia from scratching, which was more difficult than anything else.

First of all, she didn't cry.  AT ALL.  Such a brave girl. She did really great and the doctor and nurses kept going on and on about how great she was.  They said she was the best patient they had had in a long time!  We made it through the next 30 minutes until the nurse came in and put cream on all of her tested areas.

Here is what I found out.

She is NOT allergic to soy bean.  AT ALL.  Of all the things I was convinced she was allergic to, soy bean is NOT one of them!  Which I suppose is good news, because it may expand what she can eat.

Now, let's talk about what she IS allergic to.  Before we get to the foods...

The biggest one is DUST MITES.  So now we have to get a vinyl pillow covering and get rid of her stuffed animals.  Not all of them, and she can play during the day, but she cannot sleep with a stuffed animal.  I promised her a trip to Target to pick out a special doll/toy to sleep with at night that the dust mites can't live in.  The allergist actually said she is allergic to the dust mite feces.  That's just gross!  To think that there are dust mites everywhere...leaving their feces...YUCK!

She is NOT allergic to dogs.  She is however VERY allergic to CATS.  Do you know how happy this makes me?  I am SO proud of that little girl!!!  Being that I don't like cats and all, I have an even better excuse to never get a cat, aside from the fact that I'd never get one anyway!

She is allergic to every kind of pollen that there is.  Tree pollen, grass pollen, weed pollen.  So we're screwed there.  Good thing I'm not a window-opener.  I'm more of a "turn the air on whenever it feels too hot because I don't care about the electric bill" kinda girl anyway...so this is actually safer for Olivia.

She is also allergic to mold.  And I know that we have mold in our house.  I am not sure how we address that, since there's no way we can move or afford to completely remodel the house in order to get rid of the mold.  We'll just have to figure out a way to keep her from being exposed to it I suppose.

The allergist thought it was odd, seeing as how Livvy has NEVER been around horses (to my knowledge) but she is allergic to horses.  There goes her Triple Crown dreams.

Next we have a few food issues, potentially.  The allergist explained that food tests can often have a false positive, but NEVER a false negative.  Meaning that if soy bean is negative...it's negative.  However, she tested positive on the skin test for an allergy to PEANUTS, WALNUTS, and SESAME SEEDS.  I had to take her to a lab to have a blood draw to see if she is truly allergic to those foods.  She has to go back to see the allergist in 4 weeks.

The allergist explained that some of the hives we have seen can simply be that because she has eczema, her skin is just extra sensitive/reactive.  So while soy bean oil was a common ingredient in peanut butter, ranch dressing and Pringles, she may not actually be allergic to them.  We will still avoid peanut butter for now, until we find out for sure if she is allergic to peanuts or not.

It feels good to finally have that done and have some answers.  I will feel even better when I know if she is allergic to peanuts, walnuts and sesame seeds.  Oh and the allergist did say that her reaction to wheat was higher than normal, but that she didn't believe she was allergic to it.  And she also said that allergy shots ARE in her future.  Poor baby.  She gave us a prescription for Singulair and I have to start giving her Zyrtec once a day as well.

So there's the update, for all of you who were waiting and concerned.  We appreciate all your thoughts and prayers!