Rough day

After all of Makenna's intestinal problems, I finally asked our pediatrician for a recommendation to an allergist, and she thought that was a great idea. We spent most of the morning with Dr. Gonzales and his nurse (his wife!). They were WONDERFUL, and I finally feel like we are being listened to, and getting somewhere. The doctor explained that allergy tests are not always conclusive, but can give us a good idea of where to start. We did the skin test (for food allergies) in the office this morning. The nurse asked that I hold her over my shoulder, and pin her hands down because she might not like it. Makenna arched her back at the initial poke (16 pokes at one time), but that was it! This picture looks a lot worse than it was. (This is Makenna sleeping for about 20 minutes while we waited for the reactions.)

The bright red spot on the right is the positive control. The one in the top right hand corner is the negative control. Bottom right is milk - that was the "strongest" reaction, although the doctor said it is not a very strong reaction at all. There were also small reactions to peanut (as I suspected) and FISH of all things. I don't eat seafood, but my doctor had me taking 1 fish oil pill per day. So I will stop that, and continue my dairy-free, peanut-free diet for now.

The doctor also wanted to do blood tests, to compare results. The skin test can have false positives, and the blood test can have false negatives. So between the 2 tests, we should have a better idea of what is bothering her. This blood test.....was a little scary. It wasn't a heel prick like I expected. She had to have an actual needle in her arm. :( Fortunately, the tech was amazing - she has 4 small children of her own and just loved Makenna. She did the draw, another tech held her arm straight, and I held the rest of her body and opposite arm. She made one tiny squeak when the needle went in, but then just watched the rest of the time. They took 2 vials - I wondered if she'd have any blood left!!!

But we went home and had some rice cereal right away, and she is doing fine. Whew, that was a rough day for Makenna, but she was sooooo tough. :)