This Week at the Allergist

On Monday we hopped in the car and headed to out allergist in NYC. As expected we did another skin test and blood test. Not expected was how good Cormac was when they did the skin test. He didn't even flinch until the last prick. He just watched and sat still. When the nurse was done, he started to roll up his sleeve of his other arm. I'd say pretty good for a 2 year old. The blood test was of course a different story.

The skin results were every encouraging! Back in July he tested negative for almonds (for some reason we missed that), and positive for the other nuts that were tested. This time he tested negative again for almonds! I think this is a good sign. The other nuts came up, but much smaller welts this time. So small that after the 10 minutes we still didn't see anything. After about 20 minutes there were some small dots but not even close to last time.

The Dr. is optimistic that we may be able to rule out tree nuts! Almonds anyway. She wants to wait for the blood work to come back and make our move from there. I must note that his tree nut diagnosis was based purely on the skin test in July. When our regular pediatrician ordered the original blood test after his reaction to peanuts, Cormac wasn't tested for tree nuts. This time he was, so we sit and wait to see what the next step is.

I am still really happy with our Dr. at Mt. Sinai and their whole staff. They are all wonderful with Cormac and us. They take there time, and answer every question. Our Dr. never thinks I'm crazy or over reacting. She is supportive, and has encouraged me to go forward with the support group idea (now if only I could get moving on that).

One thing I want to stress is this. Be happy with your child's Dr.'s. If your not, it makes things so much harder. I'm glad we switched pediatrician's a while back. It was just before Cormac had his horrible reaction to peanuts. He was wonderful with us and I know we wouldn't have gotten the same attention and genuine concern from our old practice.

I went in thinking nothing had changed, and turns out there may be a big change for the better. I couldn't be happier!

This Week at the Allergist