Monday Julia had an allergist appointment with Colorado Allergy and Asthma Center to determine to what she’s allergic. We were told ahead of time that the appointment would take 2.5 – 3 hours because they reviewed your history, performed the test, reviewed the results, and put together an action plan with you.
I’m very proud of Julia – she’s been handling these recent doctor visits really, really well. No whining, no complaining, no tears – occasionally she’ll ask if she can go home now – but really, she’s been awesome.
Monday was no exception. She hung out while I chatted with the doctor and clinician, and she was very good for her skin test – she allowed the clinician to draw on and number her back, poke her approximately 60 times with little pins, and then laid quietly and without issue on her stomach during the test while watching a movie (thank goodness for TV and DVD player in each room!).
The first test showed that Julia is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, dogs, and soy (mildly). Because of the result of the dog for the first test, they had to do a second test with a needle to determine if she was also allergic to cats (which she is). Again, she was awesome during that test too and did not even flinch when they stuck a needle in her arm – like, stuck it in there.
As a result of the day, Julia was given two suckers and we were told she was the best 4 year old patient they had ever had there. I was so proud of her!
Because of the severity of the peanut and tree nut allergies (with tree nut being something we weren’t expecting which is why she reacted SO badly to the walnuts in the carrot cake a few weeks ago), we now will carry EpiPens with us for her and daycare has them too. Here is hoping we never have to use them, but I am so thankful for this child of mine who is SO understanding. Her new mantra is “No More Nuts!” over and over again, she asks after nuts in most every food that is foreign to her, and when we discussed the EpiPen, she understands that if she gets nuts, we have to use it, and while it might hurt, it will make her better – and she is fine with that.
It’s hard when your young kids start having to learn lessons like this. It doesn’t seem so bad, but to have to explain things like this to your child and how she could get really, really sick without taking these precautions – it’s hard, and yet, at the same time, it’s amazing to see her level of comprehension – I simply don’t think of a 4 year old as being able to understand things like that, but yet, here she is, understanding what the EpiPen is, why we would have to use it, and being totally okay with that.
We’re also very thankful that Julia doesn’t have any fear of going to the doctor – what a Godsend. Adam and I talked about it and really think that we have our chiropractor to thank for that – he is SO good with kids and Julia and Raven both love going to see him. We think that because of that, Julia understands that we go to the doctor for good reasons and not for bad. That makes dealing with this sort of thing so much easier.
erin
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