29/10/2024
Have you ever seen an allergy test in action? 🥜
This is my youngest. We discovered his peanut allergy when he was 18 months old. His first reaction wasn’t anaphylactic, fortunately, but we’ve had some serious scares since then! Luckily, with adrenaline on hand and some lingering rashes, tiredness, and a few extra grey hairs for me, he’s always come through okay. 🙌🏻
Twelve years later, he still needs regular check-ups. He’s still highly allergic, and the chances of outgrowing it at nearly 14 are slim to none.
So if you’ve ever wondered what an allergy test involves, here it is. The immunologist draws “train tracks” on your arm, puts a drop of each allergen he’s testing (this time, it was all the nuts since it’s been three years since his last check-up), pricks the surface of the skin with a needle to allow the allergen to enter the body, wipes the rest off, and then you wait.
The body’s immune system reacts, and the ones it doesn’t like turn into hives. As you can see, the peanut spot is pretty big. It’s actually bigger than it was three years ago. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worse, but it’s not going away anytime soon. They can be itchy, but thankfully it’s like a mild mosquito bite and usually goes away within an hour or so.
He had mild redness around walnuts, so we have to make sure he eats those to reduce the chances of it getting worse. He also still has some issues with dust mites and certain dogs. It could be worse, but for now, it’s still EpiPens and no peanuts in our world.
