A tale of two allergist appointments

On Monday Ian, Oliver, and I were gone for 3 hours for Ian's allergist appointment, and that included a few minutes shopping at a consignment store. On Thursday the four of us were gone for 9 hours for Ian's allergist appointment. We could have been home a little less than 2 hours earlier if we hadn't stopped and visited with some friends of mine whom I hadn't seen in more than 2 years. We were planning to attend their 50th wedding anniversary party in July, but we didn't make it since I was in the hospital. The five hours of driving (and about $50 worth of gas) were definitely worth it. The allergist on Monday said that Ian needed to have more than 10 more endoscopy surgeries. She was stunned that I wasn't interested in feeding my three-year-old (who only started chewing 9 months ago) foods like hummus, avocado, lamb, and shrimp. I left that appointment completely overwhelmed and discouraged. I know I will never win "mother of the year" award in terms of serving my kids the widest variety of foods, but I never expected to feel like someone was judging me over chick peas. I do know that as a mother I am going to fight to keep my children out of an operating room unless that surgery is truly necessary. I don't think it's good to go under anesthesia excessively.

On Monday the allergist questioned my decision to reduce how many scoops of EleCare I give Ian each day. She said he probably wasn't getting enough calories. Yesterday the allergist was amazed at how much weight Ian has gained since he saw him last. His weight percentile used to be lower than his height percentile. Now his weight percentile is much higher than his height percentile. I think that means he's consuming sufficient calories. If anything, he's consuming too many (definitely not too few). As to her recommendation for him to see a neurologist, the second allergist said I should ask the pediatrician. He could see what she was talking about with his forehead and said it might be because his plates fused together much too early, but he thought a pediatrician would be a better judge of that than an allergist. I plan to ask the pediatrician next Wednesday when I take Oliver in for his fourth Synagis injection.

On Monday the allergist said that she wasn't going to repeat any prick testing until April because she wanted him to have another endoscopy first. Yesterday the allergist tested him for wheat, soy, milk, peanuts, and eggs. He had a positive result for milk, peanuts, and eggs. It was the third time he had the prick testing over the past 2 years, and it was the first time he came up positive for milk. The allergist said there can be false positives. He gave me a prescription for bloodwork to test those three allergies. The bloodwork results will determine whether or not he'll give Ian permission to try things like scrambled eggs or peanut butter. Today he gave me permission to do a soy trial and a baked milk trial. I am going to try baked milk for three weeks first. If he has a negative reaction, we'll stop it immediately. If it goes well, then I'll try soy yogurt in 3 weeks. He said that just like Ian has done okay with baked eggs, he might do fine with baked milk. This would be a HUGE improvement for us because so, so, so many things I make for dinner (that are baked in the oven) have some sort of dairy product (mozarella cheese, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, cream of something soup, etc.). This means Ian can now eat things like lasagna, pizza with cheese on it, baked macaroni and cheese, etc. for the first time. I am so excited! I hope he passes this test and can continue to eat foods with baked milk. He said it might take even a year of baked milk before he can drink a glass of milk or eat cold cheese or yogurt. That's fine with me. I'm just hoping he can indeed eat pizza, tuna noodle casserole, manicotti, etc.

Yesterday's allergist said that it sounded like the allergist we saw on Monday is following CHOP's protocol. I said that she had said she was doing so. He said that she must not have read that they stopped using that protocol six months ago. He said CHOP admitted they were doing too many endoscopies. I wonder how long it will take all the doctors who followed CHOP's protocol to find out that CHOP isn't using it any more. All I know is that I will drive for 5 hours, use $50 worth of gas, and pay out of pocket for a doctor appointment (starting on February 1 we'll have an insurance that this doctor doesn't take), if it means saving my 3 year old from multiple surgeries.

I asked Paul to take Ian in for the bloodwork on Saturday morning on our way to the mall for Nadia's ballet performance. The most traumatic thing was for Ian to keep the sleeve of his shirt pulled up to his elbow for 15 minutes during the prick testing. That was sheer torture for him. The hardest parts of the day for me were #1 driving on slippery roads in the morning (snow covered) and #2 trying to keep the crying to a minimum during the 100 minutes the 3 kids and I were in the examination room. Whew. The best parts of the day were #1 knowing he's not going to have an endoscopy in the near future, #2 finding out we're going to try him on baked milk, and #3 spending time with Kay and Allen. If Nadia hadn't used the trash can we keep in the van for her when she got car sick, that would have become one of the most unpleasant parts of the day. She gets carsick at least once a month.