The Allergy Testing

We had been waiting for what seemed like eternity before we got to see the allergist. The initial appointment went well and we scheduled a follow up for testing. We went in almost 2 weeks ago and did a skin test for egg, milk, peanut, soy, wheat, oats, corn, and melon. The good news is that she only tested positive to egg, milk, and peanut. Now tomorrow we get to go meet with the allergist again. This is when we will get an action plan and decided what we will do to help her avoid these allergens while still providing a healthy diet.

The process of the test was very interesting. First they looked at her skin to make sure she wasn't currently having any reactions and then cleaned her back. Some times they do the test on the forearm, but because of her age it was better to do it on her back. The nurse used a pen to place dots on her back. The sample will be placed next to each dot, this helps them track what reaction belongs to which sample. She then took this plastic piece that had a metal tip on it and dipped it into a liquid solution that contained the allergen. She tapped this against her skin. She did the first set of testing in 2 columns. The first--left--column consisted of saline (no one should react to this), Histamine (everyone should react), egg, and milk. The second--right--column was peanut and soy. Within moments she showed a reaction to the histamine and peanut.

She got to play for about 20 minutes until they read the test. After just 10 minutes she had what they called "satellite hives" from the peanut and a reaction to egg was beginning.

About 5 minutes later, or 15 minutes into the test, a small reaction to milk began.

Once the timer went off the nurse measured each of her reactions and then cleaned everything off. She also applied a topical anti-itch cream. Then they started the second set of testing. This was done on the right side of her back. They tested for wheat, oat, corn and melon. All of these were negative. This is what it looked like when we were all done.

Overall, we are excited to report that she can eat wheat, but the peanut one seems the worst. Luckily her three allergies are in the top 8 category so by law the labels must clearly label these items.