allergy update

we saw the allergist yesterday and it is definitely oas. they were surprised to see a kid as young as noah. he had skin testing done. all indoor stuff was neg. + for grass, weeds and very much pollen, she was impressed; the bump for the tree pollen was bigger than the control (histamine). that is the apple and peas he gets reactions to. also pear, plum, cherry, almond, hazlenut and apricot are on that list but no issues so far. w/ the grass allergy, future food allergies could be to parsley, cukes, potatoes, carrots and cellary. she said allergy shots could be possible in future, but only work half the time.

thanks to my friend kate for giving me the heads-up on oas. i went in there prepared and knew what to expect and what to ask.

it could be worse, he could be allergic to nuts and have anaphylaxis. i can deal with half a year and having to peel or cook the fruit.

he got a bunch of samples of eye drops and nasonex. he is back on singulair at night b/c he also wheezes when he gets really bad. he is on zyrtec or claratin during the day. preferably zyrtec but i still have a new box of claratin. (here is something interesting: in the drs office they had an emergency instruction sheet if they are doing allergy testing and the patient becomes anaphylactic. besides giving the epi pen and starting an iv and calling 911 and doing cpr, before it gets that bad, one of the steps after givng epi is to rinse mouth and gargle with either liquid benadryl or liquid zyrtec. interesting. i should get some liquid generic benadryl on hand.) since the stupid recall, i can't get the liquid zyrtec, but i cut an adult one in half.
he will continue using the albuterol as needed and hydrocortisone for his eczema. it clears up nicely with it. and just otc one. i slather him with aveno once or twice a day. she also said to shower him at night to get all the pollen off him and if we can't, at least wash his face before bed (we do anyway).
and she said no attic fan., which stinks b/c we love using it. we have to use the central air more often, and not open windows. i am not sure i will be as extreme as that. if i can maintain him on his meds and control his symptoms, I will still use the attic fan and open windows. especially yesterday, it was gorgeous mid 70's with very low humidity. perfect weather!!
she said from now on, he has to be on his meds from st patricks day to 4th of july. good rule of thumb. she said to keep eye drops in fridge for him for a cooling effect and keep a moist wash cloth in bag in fridge that he can use on his eyes when they get really bad.
he goes back in sept for a follow up. i was pleased with the office.
as for the skin testing.. the nurse was quick and you can tell she has done this a 1000 times and explained it to parents and kids the same way. she called the two testing trays her catipillars and their feet were going to tickle noah. then she jammed a tray on each arm, giving 8 pricks on each arm. he freaked b/c it hurt, it surprised him.. since when does tickles feel like that? and then he got wicked itchy. so that really bothered him that he could not scratch. but we distracted him w/ joe's i phone watching a cartoon. after 7 min she came back in and measured the bumps and then washed it all off and applied benadryl cream.
he now officially hates catapilliers. as we were leaving he got to pick a sticker. why would this office choose to have catapillar stickers? that is dumb.