Allergies
Wesley has had so much trouble since he was born with having a stuffy nose, coughing, runny eyes, etc., that we decided to get an allergy test done on him. First off, this thing was horrible. It is bad enough to try and hold a little one up in a doctors office (or anywhere) for 4 hours, but to have to torture him too is over the top. The doctor's office at least had a tv in the room and kids videos, so that helped for a little while.
Well, it took about an hour and a half to go through and answer all of the general questions about our household, Wesley, his activities, problems, etc. for the doctor. I was impressed, he was very thorough and was kind of like an old-time doctor who gave you advice on everything else too. He recommended (and showed us) how to make little paper boats to help Wesley learn to pee in the potty. He even cut them out for us and explained how to use them. We learned about his fathers holly bush that has pumpkins growing in it 7 feet into the air. I won't go on, but you get the idea. I didn't mind too much, it was nice for a doctor to actually seem to care about more than getting his pay and took his time out to get to know us and Wesley.
Well, after the life lessons and family history came the point where Wesley became a pin cushion. He had around 15 sticks in each arm (they do it like a TB test where they stick a needle under your arm and insert the serum) and around 10 spots on his back (they put the serum on his skin and took a metal stick and scratched his skin). Erick was the lucky one who had to hold him down so they could do this. Thank goodness, the lady who did it was excellent and it only took about 3-5 minutes to do every one of the spots. Wesley was screaming bloody murder and hollaring "it hurts, it hurts". I just had to keep look at those huge crocodile tears rolling down his face while I told him it was going to be ok (even though I knew how he felt because I had had it done before myself).
At this point, we had to wait 15 minutes for the reactions to take effect. Wesley was excited though, because he got to go to the big toy closet and pick out 2 toys to take home. . . oh, and he got a thing of juice to drink. First, he picked up the 2 biggest balls they had in the closet and was trying to carry them off down the hall. We talked him into putting one of them back (since he only has 30 balls at home already) and choosing something else. So, instead, he picked the 4 pack of play-dough. For the next 15-30 minutes this was the activity of choice to keep him from touching the spots on his arms. . . it worked pretty well. Erick was trying to make a play-dough pizza and Wesley had to make worms to go on it. How yummy!!!!!
Next came the viewing of the "boo-boo's" by the doctor. Well, Wesley wasn't going to let this happen and I doubt that he will ever let any doctor get near him again. I don't blame him. He didn't want anything getting near him. Finally, I convinced him that the doctor was tickling his boo-boo's and it distracted him enough that the doctor was able to view the spots and measure all of them. By this time, we had probably been in the doctor's office around 2 1/2 hours with a child who had been up since around 6 that morning, hadn't had a full nap at daycare, got poked and prodded and had blood spurting out all over his arms (the worst sight for a kid), and wanted to go home.
At this point, the doctor left to see another patient and then came back in to go over the results with us (which took about an hour to do). I figured that Wesley would be allergic to a couple of things, but he was allergic to almost everything they tested for. Lets see, he is allergic to about every kind of grass there is that is just sitting there (this is his worst allergy, for he is moderate to severely allergic), grass parasites after the grass has been mowed, about every kind of mold there is that exists on fruits, soil, trees, grasses, books, cardboard, paper, etc., dead leaves (he is severely allergic to this too), spores in the air from grain and corn, a few types of yeast and fungi found in nature, on fruit, and on humans, dustmites, penicillium (thankfully not the medicine though), trees of all kinds, weeds of all kinds like plantain, ragweed, thistle, etc., fish (salmon and white fish. . . but, thankfully, this one is only a mild allergy because he loves fish and we eat alot of it), shrimp (mild also), and uncooked tomatoes (mild too). I am just thankful that he isn't allergic to peanuts, milk, wheat, etc.
So, now comes the testing of allergy medicines for him. Over the next 6 weeks, he has to be on 5 different kinds of medicine (at different times, thank goodness) to see which ones work the best. He had already been on Singulair, Zyrtec, Tussin, Albuterol, and Pulmocort for his allergies since he was born and they work ok, but not great, so the doctor wants to see if anything else works better. For most of his worst allergies, the allergy shot is said to work the best and would cover most of the more specific allergies he has, but the doctor wants to test out some meds first. Myself, I would rather have him get a shot once a month instead of having to drug him up every day. I haven't asked Wesley that though. . . like I said, I would rather him have one. . . I'm sure he doesn't want to step back in that doctor's office again though.
After 4 hours in the doctor's office we finally got to leave and come home. Unfortunately, I think all of the allergic reactions got to Wesley that night because he threw up everywhere. Poor guy, hopefully he will start getting better now that we know he has horrible allergies instead of thinking that he is sick all the time.
Well, it took about an hour and a half to go through and answer all of the general questions about our household, Wesley, his activities, problems, etc. for the doctor. I was impressed, he was very thorough and was kind of like an old-time doctor who gave you advice on everything else too. He recommended (and showed us) how to make little paper boats to help Wesley learn to pee in the potty. He even cut them out for us and explained how to use them. We learned about his fathers holly bush that has pumpkins growing in it 7 feet into the air. I won't go on, but you get the idea. I didn't mind too much, it was nice for a doctor to actually seem to care about more than getting his pay and took his time out to get to know us and Wesley.
Well, after the life lessons and family history came the point where Wesley became a pin cushion. He had around 15 sticks in each arm (they do it like a TB test where they stick a needle under your arm and insert the serum) and around 10 spots on his back (they put the serum on his skin and took a metal stick and scratched his skin). Erick was the lucky one who had to hold him down so they could do this. Thank goodness, the lady who did it was excellent and it only took about 3-5 minutes to do every one of the spots. Wesley was screaming bloody murder and hollaring "it hurts, it hurts". I just had to keep look at those huge crocodile tears rolling down his face while I told him it was going to be ok (even though I knew how he felt because I had had it done before myself).
At this point, we had to wait 15 minutes for the reactions to take effect. Wesley was excited though, because he got to go to the big toy closet and pick out 2 toys to take home. . . oh, and he got a thing of juice to drink. First, he picked up the 2 biggest balls they had in the closet and was trying to carry them off down the hall. We talked him into putting one of them back (since he only has 30 balls at home already) and choosing something else. So, instead, he picked the 4 pack of play-dough. For the next 15-30 minutes this was the activity of choice to keep him from touching the spots on his arms. . . it worked pretty well. Erick was trying to make a play-dough pizza and Wesley had to make worms to go on it. How yummy!!!!!
Next came the viewing of the "boo-boo's" by the doctor. Well, Wesley wasn't going to let this happen and I doubt that he will ever let any doctor get near him again. I don't blame him. He didn't want anything getting near him. Finally, I convinced him that the doctor was tickling his boo-boo's and it distracted him enough that the doctor was able to view the spots and measure all of them. By this time, we had probably been in the doctor's office around 2 1/2 hours with a child who had been up since around 6 that morning, hadn't had a full nap at daycare, got poked and prodded and had blood spurting out all over his arms (the worst sight for a kid), and wanted to go home.
At this point, the doctor left to see another patient and then came back in to go over the results with us (which took about an hour to do). I figured that Wesley would be allergic to a couple of things, but he was allergic to almost everything they tested for. Lets see, he is allergic to about every kind of grass there is that is just sitting there (this is his worst allergy, for he is moderate to severely allergic), grass parasites after the grass has been mowed, about every kind of mold there is that exists on fruits, soil, trees, grasses, books, cardboard, paper, etc., dead leaves (he is severely allergic to this too), spores in the air from grain and corn, a few types of yeast and fungi found in nature, on fruit, and on humans, dustmites, penicillium (thankfully not the medicine though), trees of all kinds, weeds of all kinds like plantain, ragweed, thistle, etc., fish (salmon and white fish. . . but, thankfully, this one is only a mild allergy because he loves fish and we eat alot of it), shrimp (mild also), and uncooked tomatoes (mild too). I am just thankful that he isn't allergic to peanuts, milk, wheat, etc.
So, now comes the testing of allergy medicines for him. Over the next 6 weeks, he has to be on 5 different kinds of medicine (at different times, thank goodness) to see which ones work the best. He had already been on Singulair, Zyrtec, Tussin, Albuterol, and Pulmocort for his allergies since he was born and they work ok, but not great, so the doctor wants to see if anything else works better. For most of his worst allergies, the allergy shot is said to work the best and would cover most of the more specific allergies he has, but the doctor wants to test out some meds first. Myself, I would rather have him get a shot once a month instead of having to drug him up every day. I haven't asked Wesley that though. . . like I said, I would rather him have one. . . I'm sure he doesn't want to step back in that doctor's office again though.
After 4 hours in the doctor's office we finally got to leave and come home. Unfortunately, I think all of the allergic reactions got to Wesley that night because he threw up everywhere. Poor guy, hopefully he will start getting better now that we know he has horrible allergies instead of thinking that he is sick all the time.
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