The ped allergist

Today we went to the pediatric allergist.

We drove an hour and a half to get there. Get there and there's a problem with the insurance. Don't know all what happened, I made all my calls, but they didn't send the right referrals and such. We tried to figure it out, but couldn't. The dr. said he wanted to see us anyways since we drove all that way. Chances are our insurance will NOT cover this THEN as we left we tried to fix the insurance stuff but he told us that he didn't care if it didn't get covered, he'd make sure it didn't fall on us.

He HATES the dr. we have been seeing. Thinks he's an idiot (said in so many words) They've been pushing something called delayed reaction testing for a long time. I just didn't feel comfortable with it. I did my online research because insurance doesn't cover it and we didn't do it. They kept pushing it. Everytime I called with a question Oh you should do it. This dr. told me point blank it's a joke and to not do it. He couldn't understand the testing notes they did and told me in so many words that the guy is an idiot.

Then he spends OVER an hour and a half talking to me about all of Gabe's reactions and such. He doesn't think Gabe has many food allergies. The nuts and mold one yes, but the others no. He doesn't know what has caused the weird symptoms (he thinks it's something, but not allergies) but that according to him only the tree nuts and mold sound like real allergies. He then did testing and almost all the things came back negative!!! (a year ago he did test positive) Out of 21 there were 4 very minor ones. mold, almond, and some minor tree pollens. The reactions last time were much bigger! So that is so great! He really might have out grown them! (the histamine reaction was MAYBE 1/8 the size it was last test!)

He wants us to slowly introduce the allergens back one by one. He thinks Gabe will be able to eat everything except nuts!!! The feta cheese he is confused by. He's not sure if it's really a reaction to the mold or something else in it. According to him mold reactions very rarely act like that. It's normally a breathing issue from the spores, not a vomiting reaction from eating it. So he's not sure but obviously we just avoid it and keep the epipen around.

Oh he says he doesn't want to make us drive that far again unless he has to see Gabe so instead of making appts he'll call us with all results and stuff and do the appts over the phone. Seriously guy is a SAINT!

So that's all the really good news.

Semi bad news. He is running a lot of blood work. He thinks something has been causing the rashes, coldsores, belly aches, fluid in the ear, post nasal drip and aches and pains. Gabe lately is always saying his back hurts. Our ped says he's 4 and dramatic, never thought twice about it and didn't look at his back at all. The allergist wants to look into it. Said it could be joint pain, or inflammation, or auto immune. So he's testing for all of that to see if we can figure out where to look for a cause of issues. He thinks it's something, but not allergies.

So we start introducing corn in small quantities on sunday. Gabe was so happy. He's been talking about popcorn for hours.

I'm still kinda in shock. It's crazy.

So THANK GOD Gabe's allergies are getting better! (except the feta cheese mold stuff) and pray that the food challenges go well and that all the blood work comes back negative!