Hold The Eggs Please

Rashele and I elected to delve further into the depths of Mason’s suspected allergies. I say suspected because we became leery of the IgG results after reading more in depth some discouraging facts about the test and the inaccuracies that tend to occur with it. We consulted with an allergist who confirmed that the IgG is the least accurate in determining allergies for a variety of reasons. This is in part because the results are only as good as the lab doing the testing.

So we elected for a “back scratch” test and weigh the differences between it, and the IgG test.

As with all things revolving around Mason, this took careful planning. He hates anyone in a lab coat or scrubs. To counter his disdain for the medical staff, we took some of his favorite objects with us.

• 1 Dozen Donut Holes
• Laptop with downloaded episodes of his favorite shows.

We arrived promptly and checked in for our appointment. Fortunately their waiting room doesn’t give off that “doctor” feel, so at the time Mason was partly clueless what was about to befall him. We did prep him earlier that morning, and again in the car about what was going to happen, but we never know how much is going to sink in.

Our names were called and we made our way to the room.

Defenses were drawn. Mason knew the jig was up. Heels dug in.

Out came a donut hole. Like a donkey with a carrot dangling in front of him, he followed us into the room.

We proceeded to set up camp, booting up laptops to show his favorite movie as a detractor/motivator while the nurse came in to take vitals and gather other pertinent data.

In came the doctor, she spoke very kindly to Mason, took some more vitals. He, as usual, wanted nothing to do with her.

It was that time. The shirt had to come off, and the testing was to begin. Out came the Sharpie marker. Rashele and I assumed our positions, she holds down his top half, while I hold the kicking legs. As they were administering the markings I mentally credited Mason for being freakishly strong for all 43 pounds that he is.

Next in came the nurse to administer the pricks to the back. This was the hard part. 30+ pricks from shoulder to shoulder, and practically down to his waist. We all endured the screaming banshee that is my son. It was uncomfortable for all of us, especially Rashele, but moreso Mason for obvious reasons.

After a couple of minutes the markings were done and the nurses left us alone in the room for 20 minutes while Mason percolated. I say ‘percolated’ because for the next 20 minutes we watched his shirtless back bubble with obvious allergic reactions to various items.

Now with Mason, whenever a particular body part is hurt, he will mentally check out and ignore that body part. His mentality is out of sight, out of mind so to speak. I’m sure his back itched terribly but he wouldn’t scratch it. He sat straight up in a tense position until the time passed.

There was no doubt that he was having some severe reactions to something. We were anxious for the staff to come back, we were partly excited, partly scared.

Eventually they came back in and compared the red, inflamed, and I imagine very itchy markings on Mason’s back. Some allergies were moderate, like wheat, and cats, (which we have 3) some allergies severe, like Egg, Rice, and Peanut.

None of these ever raised a flag on the IgG test, yet there was no debunking this test as I could see with my own eyes that red bubbled skin. Definitely allergic.

Mason’s never eaten eggs, and we were told that items cooked with eggs were still probably okay for him to consume as the egg proteins cook out. And he has only had peanut butter in very small doses, and we saw no “outward” reactions, but I’m betting internally it was affecting him unbeknownst to us.

As for rice, it dawned us yesterday that we can attribute Mason’s incredible crankiness for the past month to the fact that we put him on Rice milk just a few weeks ago. (at the urging of the nutritionist that urged us to pull dairy from him…no dairy allergies were found in her IgG test or the back scratch test)

For the severe allergies we were administered a prescription for an Epipen just in case one was ever needed for a severe allergic reaction.

Looks like some menu changes will be happening very soon.