Matthew’s food allergy treatment plan has kind of been on hold since our allergist retired a year and a half ago. The doc we saw last year was not a good fit for us. Not only was he not proactive in terms of getting more foods back in Matthew’s diet, but none of us were comfortable with him. Malia saw another allergist earlier this year and we were all much more comfortable with her. She has the attitude of getting my kids into as a normal a life as possible rather than just saying they can’t do or eat things (she suggested the gloves and pretreatment with antihistamines prior to horseback riding rather than suggesting Malia skip it all together), which is much more in keeping with our attitude about how life should be for our kiddos. While Matthew met her back in the spring, today was his first official visit with her.
We do bloodwork and skin prick testing on Matthew every year and there were some surprises this year. Matthew’s number for egg white is down to 10. That is lower than it has ever been! As a frame of reference, when he was three or four, his number hovered around 45, so 10 is amazing! Not only that, but the component testing of the egg proteins (component testing gives results for the individual proteins in each food rather than just the food as a whole) had some even better results. There are two proteins in eggs. One of them is considered “bad” because the protein doesn’t break down when it is cooked. The “good” protein does break down when cooked. Matthew’s number for the good protein is 12, which is fantastic. And here’s the best part-he tests negative for the bad protein!! So although he may never be able to eat eggs cooked sunny side up, eating fully cooked eggs may become a possibility in the future. His number for milk is down to 8 and casein (one of the proteins in milk) is at 6. So that’s fantastic too! Matthew and I were both so excited!
The skin prick testing still shows that he is allergic to the raw egg and milk, but his hives were only about the size of the tip of a pencil eraser. For a comparison, the hives for his environmental testing (grass in particular) were a couple of inches big. The doctor’s reaction to that was to state that Matthew is a very allergic individual. Yup. We’ve heard that before. On several occasions, actually.
With the results of the skin prick testing factored in, the doc presented us with a food plan. She wants Matthew to start eating waffles with eggs in them. After a few weeks, she wants him to switch to waffles with milk. If that goes well, waffles with both egg and milk are up next. And after that, we start trying cookies. How amazing is that?! Our excitement (and trepidation) ramped up with that news, but this is most definitely a proactive step forward. We’ve been playing the waiting game since the retirement of our original allergist, but I feel like we are finally back in motion. Matthew’s body is making some progress and if this all goes well, he will be making some big strides into being able to eat much more normally.
No comments:
Post a Comment