On Sunday we went out for lunch with a few friends. We hadn't been to the old neighborhood in a while and we were missing our favorite sandwich joint. It was good to see Ralph and Ms. Ralph, the owners of the shop, and they were very happy to see 'A'. It was a beautiful day and we got a seat outside and we were really enjoying the good food and time with friends.
We decided to bring "A's" little booster seat and a jar of carrots so we could feed her carrots for the first time while we were eating lunch. She didn't seem to mind the carrots that much and we were all enjoying lunch. Ralph and Ms. Ralph both took time to come out and say hi and visit with 'A'. It was a few minutes after Ms. Ralph came out to visit that the lunch took a turn for the worse.
"A's" left hand was covered in hives and they seemed to be spreading up her arm. Of course we had thought about bringing the epi-pen that the dr prescribed ("hey we should be bring the epi-pen if we are going to feed her", "yeah good idea") but forgot and left it at home.
With her face and both hands covered in carrots it seemed strange that the hives were almost exclusively on one hand with one hive on the other and none on her face. So, it didn't seem like a topical reaction to the carrots but we didn't know if it was because she ate them. We put a call in to the beeper service at the dr's office and cut lunch short to head home.
As we were leaving it dawned on us that Ms. Ralph had touched "A's" hand when she came out to see us and we thought it wouldn't hurt to ask her what food she had been handling before she came outside.
My wife ran back in as I ran to get the car and Ms. Ralph said "I had just washed my hands".
Could this whole thing be a reaction to the soap? Further more, maybe the nurses at the allergist's office got the test right after all and the hives the few days 'A' was eating soy were from a soap reaction then too. We were at a friends house that weekend and it is possible that one of use touched her after washing our hands.
We made a note of the soap at the restaurant, washed "A's" hands off with water and headed home.
The hives were completely gone by the time we got home and 'A' seems fine but this really adds another layer of complexity to the allergies issue.
We had decided that at this age that we don't need to carry around the epi-pen with us all the time because we are in control of what she is eating, but after this expierence that might change.
Showing posts with label allergies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label allergies. Show all posts
Monday, May 17, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
'A' Gets an Allergy Test
My daughter has very bad eczema. Depending which doctor we talked to, it seems that this is linked to an allergy. I have allergies so her chances of having allergies, asthma or eczema are high. We decided to take her to the allergist to see what she was allergic to so we could remove it from her diet and relieve her from some of the itchiness.
We arrived at the allergist and the scratch test was all set up and ready to. They were testing for milk, soy, wheat, eggs and peanuts as these are the five most common allergies in babies. Upon our first question to the nurse she confessed that she was new to the department and would ask another nurse. It made me feel confident that she was smart enough to know when to ask for help and I didn't think to much of it until after the test.
The way the test works is that they load one drop of clear liquid that contains the allergen they are testing for onto a tool that looks like a comb. One prong of the comb for each allergen. They also add a drop of histamine and a drop of saline as controls. It is crucial that they load the comb up with the same pattern that is written on the chart so they know which bump on her back corresponds with what allergen.
After waiting for the fifteen meetings the new nurse came back in and started measuring the bumps on A's back. They measure the bumps and assign a number, 0 being no reaction to 4 being the largest bump that A had.
At this point the more experienced nurse returned and they started modifying the numbers that the new nurse had written down. There seemed to be a lot of confusion but we more focused on keeping our very fidgety, now more than normaly itchy child calm while they measured the bumps. After a few minutes of fixing and changing the numbers on the chart the chart was an unreadable mess. We then went across the hall and waited for the doctor.
By the time the doctor arrived the chart had been rewritten. We noticed that the allergens that they tested for were all of a sudden different on the chart from what they were before. We mentioned this to the doctor and he grabbed the original chart and corrected the updated chart. He told us what A is allergic to and what we should do and we headed home.
The test showed that A measured a 4 for eggs, 2 for wheat and milk, and barely a 1 for peanuts. The first change we were to make was to switch the formula she was drinking (she now gets 50% formula, 50% breast milk) from cow milk to soy based. We went right out and bought new formula and made the switch.
The next day we realized that there was a hive on A's leg. The day after she had several hives. We put a call in to the on-call doctor at our pediatrician's office.
The doctor's only guess was that the test was wrong and that since the only thing we changed was the formula that it was the soy that caused the hives.
We called the allergist the next day and he also felt that the test was not correct guessing that the nurses mixed up two of the items on the test.
WHAT!?!?!??! Are you kidding me. Are you telling me that we finally had an answer and now we don't know for sure what she is allergic too. We only know for sure that she is allergic to soy because of the hives. And we know that she is not allergic to one of wheat, milk or peanuts.
How can they make a mistake like this? This makes me so angry that I don't know what else to write. When I mess something up at work nobody is hurt. But this is unacceptable.
You can be sure that next time they give her a test I will demand that I am there for the set up and that an experienced nurse will be performing it. There is no way that the risk of putting her life in someone else's hands is worth it.
We arrived at the allergist and the scratch test was all set up and ready to. They were testing for milk, soy, wheat, eggs and peanuts as these are the five most common allergies in babies. Upon our first question to the nurse she confessed that she was new to the department and would ask another nurse. It made me feel confident that she was smart enough to know when to ask for help and I didn't think to much of it until after the test.
The way the test works is that they load one drop of clear liquid that contains the allergen they are testing for onto a tool that looks like a comb. One prong of the comb for each allergen. They also add a drop of histamine and a drop of saline as controls. It is crucial that they load the comb up with the same pattern that is written on the chart so they know which bump on her back corresponds with what allergen.
After waiting for the fifteen meetings the new nurse came back in and started measuring the bumps on A's back. They measure the bumps and assign a number, 0 being no reaction to 4 being the largest bump that A had.
At this point the more experienced nurse returned and they started modifying the numbers that the new nurse had written down. There seemed to be a lot of confusion but we more focused on keeping our very fidgety, now more than normaly itchy child calm while they measured the bumps. After a few minutes of fixing and changing the numbers on the chart the chart was an unreadable mess. We then went across the hall and waited for the doctor.
By the time the doctor arrived the chart had been rewritten. We noticed that the allergens that they tested for were all of a sudden different on the chart from what they were before. We mentioned this to the doctor and he grabbed the original chart and corrected the updated chart. He told us what A is allergic to and what we should do and we headed home.
The test showed that A measured a 4 for eggs, 2 for wheat and milk, and barely a 1 for peanuts. The first change we were to make was to switch the formula she was drinking (she now gets 50% formula, 50% breast milk) from cow milk to soy based. We went right out and bought new formula and made the switch.
The next day we realized that there was a hive on A's leg. The day after she had several hives. We put a call in to the on-call doctor at our pediatrician's office.
The doctor's only guess was that the test was wrong and that since the only thing we changed was the formula that it was the soy that caused the hives.
We called the allergist the next day and he also felt that the test was not correct guessing that the nurses mixed up two of the items on the test.
WHAT!?!?!??! Are you kidding me. Are you telling me that we finally had an answer and now we don't know for sure what she is allergic too. We only know for sure that she is allergic to soy because of the hives. And we know that she is not allergic to one of wheat, milk or peanuts.
How can they make a mistake like this? This makes me so angry that I don't know what else to write. When I mess something up at work nobody is hurt. But this is unacceptable.
You can be sure that next time they give her a test I will demand that I am there for the set up and that an experienced nurse will be performing it. There is no way that the risk of putting her life in someone else's hands is worth it.
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