Baby Steps

Today was our first appointment with Dr. Randhawa! Overall, I think it went great. Makai was very nervous, which was to be expected since we were anticipating a blood draw and possibly skin testing. Calming his anxiety and being patient with his unending stream of questions will be my new challenge. He is already petrified of hospitals, emergency rooms, and even ambulances due to previous anaphylactic reactions. So being that Dr. R’s clinic is IN the hospital, doesn’t make it any easier.

So, after initial discussions about Dr. R’s history, Makai’s history, and a physical exam, we decided to dive into skin testing. He reacted very mildly to everything, even the histamine (which is supposed to react every time to everyone) hardly reacted. This was very unusual according to the nurse, but then again, I feel like Makai’s allergies are unusual as well. Sometimes very reactive, sometimes not at all.

Above are the notes from the nurse for our skin testing. Reactive only to egg white, cashew, pistachio, and walnut. But we know he is also allergic to milk. Strange. These tests frustrate me since they seem so very inaccurate with Makai. Not a good representation of what he is truly allergic to.

Next step is getting an authorization from our insurance company for all the blood testing they want, and then patch testing. Doctor also heard some wheezes from Makai, so we’ll be tackling that soon too. So. Many. Steps. Baby steps. I find myself wanting to speed this process up as much as we can, but my new mantra I’m repeating over and over is “baby steps.” I think my biggest lesson in all of this will be patience. One day at a time. Dr. Randhawa estimated that our entire course will probably take a year and a half. Sigh. Possibly 11 foods to desensitize to and then fully incorporate. Baby Steps. We will get there. And to celebrate, we went and picked Finn up at school (that was Makai’s request) and went to Benihana for lunch. Maybe one day he’ll get the egg fried rice.