A visit to the allergist

Doesn't that sound like loads of fun?!?!?? You know you wanna..... Everybody's doing it.....

Lucky Frodo got to see the allergist today. He's been having increasing symptoms with his viral induced asthma, so his pediatrician wanted us to go there to find out if *something* was behind it all.

So ahead of time I do NOTHING to prepare Frodo for this visit besides tell him we're going to the doctor's office. This kid gets HIGHLY bent out of shape about shots and needles. I wasn't about to tell him all about skin testing.... He would've needed elephant tranqulizers if he knew ahead of time. Heck, dh had skin testing done at about the same age and still gets all hypervenilating about it 27 years later.... (Men are wimps. Oh! Did I just type that out loud??)

To make a long story a bit shorter, the doctor was AWESOME, we ended up doing skin testing, Frodo was brave, but started crying at the end but still held still like he was supposed to, and he broke out from only 4 of the 40 test spots. But when he breaks out from something, he does it BIG! Turns out he's allergic to alternaria (a prevalent outdoor mold), dog (we knew that already from previous exposure), cat (Eek! We have a kitty!) , and shellfish (that one was the *surprise welt of the day*).

So. What does this mean? (Any other Lutheran confirmation class survivors out there? LOL!)

No shellfish. (Big whoop-de-do. I don't like the stuff anyhow, so it's never in the house. Can't say anyone's died from a *shrimp deficiency* either....)

No dog. (Fine with me. Having a dog is like having another kid, and I don't want another one of those either!)

Alternaria? We either keep the kid in a bubble as long as there's no snow on the ground, or just treat the symptoms during peak alternaria time. (Aug/Sept. That explains a lot.) We'll treat. The bubble was just too damn expensive. ;)

But what about the kitty?!?!?!?

The doc says, no need to get rid of the kitty. Her dander is already all over the house, so getting rid of her isn't going to change a thing at this time. (Phew!!) We will discuss further options down the road if needed. (Ie: immunotherapy, aka "allergy shots". Oh yeah. THAT'S gonna go over real well with Frodo.... I sure hope we don't have to head that way!)

We got a prescription for Singulair with instructions to take that daily, to use the albuterol inhaler as needed, and check back in 2 months for another *breathing test* to see how the Singulair is working.

If only everything else were as simple as this!!!

I'm still stunned about the shellfish. Huh. How weird.