Anticlimactic Allergy Appointment

This morning Caleb and I trekked back over to Walter Reed for another follow-up allergy appointment (after his big anaphylactic scare before Christmas). This time we brought samples of all the food he was eating at lunchtime--pepperoni pizza from this local restaurant, fresh pineapple and grapes, and decaf Folgers coffee. I thought he was going to eat them in an oral challenge-type thing, but as it turned out, the doctor just wanted to use those things to prick Caleb's back. So the tech made a slurry of the dry coffee, and for everything else just stuck the pricker in the food, then stuck it in Caleb's back. Caleb had prick tests done back in July, on his forearm, and he was a basket case! He moaned, wailed, and otherwise carried on. I am thrilled to say that this time he just laid there and read a comic book! Yay!

And he didn't show any positive reactions to anything, which was not that surprising. He had a tiny wheal by the pineapple prick, but it evidently wasn't big enough to be called a positive reaction. But he's had all those food many times before without any problems. He has had mild reactions to fresh pineapple before, but only when he's had a ton of it in the previous days. So I think my theory of him being sensitized by the exposure to his friend's pets the day before the reaction is probably the best one, and I expect it is the pineapple that was the culprit.

So with no positive reactions, the doc sent up over to the lab to do a blood draw for a RAST test. We'll see if anything shows up there, and based on the results, they will bring Caleb back in for an oral challenge. Hmmm . . . I really don't know if I want to make yet another big trip out to Walter Reed in the next few weeks! But we'll keep on avoiding fresh pineapple for a little while more, I guess.

One interesting thing was this pediatric doctor who was shadowing our allergy doc. He was seriously the tallest man I have ever seen in person--he had to duck to go through doorways! Our allergist is not a short man by any means--probably 6'1" I would say. He almost came up to this other doctor's shoulders! When we were sitting in the waiting room before our appointment, I heard some tech asking who "Doctor So-and-so" was. "You can't miss him. He's the really tall guy in the black navy uniform" was the response. And as soon as I saw him, I realized he was obviously the guy being discussed! Definitely not someone who blends into a crowd of uniforms!