Allergist Appointment

JL visited the allergist which he saw back in October.  We go every 6 months unless we need to go more frequently.  We had been doing really well, but with the drastic weather changes and everything blooming we cant seem to keep the runny nose and asthma attacks at bay.  Greg had been out of town for 5 five days so of course JL got pretty sick.  He had a pretty bad flare up and we ended up at the Saturday clinic at his pediatricians office.  Dr. Swindle's words were "if you had waited 6-8 more hours, you would have ended up in the emergency room".  I couldnt get his cough to stop on friday night so I started our round of nebulizer treatments ever three house.  This did not help one bit. Usually after 1-2 days of this we are back to normal and ready to go, but I could tell after a sleepless night with no relief we needed something else.


Dr. Swindle prescribed Prednisolone......aka 'liquid moodiness'.  It was awful.  The roid rages were beyond anything I have ever experienced with him before.  I am so used to Greg being here to sort of cater to us when JL just needs to be held for two hours while he has a rage, but he was gone.  JL was hitting, screaming, panting, coughing......ugh.  He was on this for five days, twice a day.


I was so relieved to get to go back to the allergist on the Wednesday which was his last day of meds.   She feels we have not hit the root of what all he is allergic to (which is my gut)......so we are going to retest him on August 1st when he is 3 so it will be more accurate.  I asked about a blood draw (because I want one for him), but she says we will just do the skin prick test again.


At this point, I am searching for answers again and just am reassuring myself that there is nothing wrong with a second opinion.  Daily he takes:


reflux medication in the morning
singulair in the morning
1 mL of liquid allergy med in the morning
4ML of decongestant (as needed, but we cant seem to get off it as we stay flared up!)


to this the allergist has added a nose spray in hopes that it will dry up what we need the 4mL med for and possible the 1mL med for.


sigh......I just keep thinking we are medicating the symptoms and not to the root of the problem.  The allergist agrees that there is no explanation right now of why he stays flared up year around and cant get off the singulair....so she is searching for answers as well.


The diet is still in place as it keeps his gut and skin normal.  When we are not on the diet he has constant diarhea, skin rashes, mouth sores/rashes, and is just plain irritable.


I feel like we have been so lucky to find some health in all of this.  In general, since seeing the pulmonologist and allergist we HAVE been so much healthier and for that I am sooooo thankful!

Here is a pic of what we looked like on our way to the allergist.  The red puffy cheeks are an allergic reaction to either the dye they used to paint Easter eggs at school or possibly his steriod........ya just never know!