Skin Testing

On December 9th, Kyzer and his brother, Hendrick, had skin testing done.  Kyzer was skin tested for all tree nuts.  Hendrick was skin tested for peanuts and tree nuts.  (This day was also considered a 'Consult Day' for Hendrick to officially become a patient of Dr. Greiwe).


Hendrick is 7.5, and he has never had peanuts or tree nuts....simply because his older brother was allergic to them.  He had been skin tested for them twice before (once at 6 months old and again at 3), and each time was negative.  We almost had bloodwork done for him when he was three (we took him to a different allergist than Kyzer went to).   HOWEVER, he had JUST had bloodwork done for other reasons, and it was extremely traumatizing so we didn't want to put him through it again so quickly.  Then, life just happened.  Then, we moved into an RV (for fun, on purpose!) for 2 years and traveled.  It was just easy to avoid peanuts and tree nuts with Hendrick since we already did for Kyzer.


We had to wait until December for Kyzer to be able to have the skin testing done.  He is allergic to all trees, all grasses, all weeds, mold, dust, cats, and dogs too.  He also has allergy-induced asthma and cold-induced asthma.  He takes Allergra daily.  You have to be off all antihistamines for at least 5 days before skin testing.  The only time Kyzer can go off of Allergra is once the temperatures hit the freezing mark outside.  (One major reason he and I love winter in Ohio!).  So we patiently waited until December came.


Back to December 9th....Hendrick was a nervous wreck because some how he remembered the skin test he had done at the age of 3.  The pricks were all done on their arms.  Hendrick got through it, and each thing was negative!  Yay!

This was Hendrick's arm right after he was pricked.  

Everything stayed negative.

Kyzer's skin test results were 'inconclusive'.  The doctor deemed him to have sensitive skin.  I forget the medical term he used for it, but basically he explained that anything that touched Kyzer's skin would cause redness.  He demonstrated by making an ever-so-slight scratch on Kyzer's arm that promptly turned red.  Everything he was tested for showed the same redness and the exact same raised swelling (wheal).  Everything matched perfectly, and that is just not right.

Kyzer getting pricked one-by-one.

(She was marking his arm with a pen here).

SO....the allergist said that he was good to go to challenge tree nuts!  Almonds, walnuts, and hazelnuts.   He also said Hendrick could challenge peanuts, almonds, walnuts, and hazelnuts.


I stood in that office and made an appointment to come back so the boys could put peanuts and tree nuts IN their mouths, but I honestly didn't believe I would bring them back.  I was TERRIFIED.  I was thinking to myself as I was making the appointment with the receptionist, "Go ahead.  Put us down.  But I'll be calling to cancel."