Life With The Shirleys: the longest 15 minutes...ever

Today was The Mayor's appointment with the allergist and it was the day for the skin testing. Oh joy. D went with us and Meega watched Love Bug since skin testing on a 3 year old is absolutely a two parent job. For those of you not abreast to the details of skin testing, the quick and dirty version is each panel of testing is 8 tiny needles. Each needle is saturated in whatever it is they are testing to see what you are allergic to and they press each panel into your back. The needles pierce your skin allowing enough of the liquid to get under your skin and you lie flat on your stomach for 15 minutes to see if a welt appears on your back. They did 4 panels on The Mayor's back (which is 32 needles...actually 33 since they also pierce the back with a needle of histamine to ensure it welts and the test is accurate).

Do you think a 3 year old is going to lie flat on his tummy and lie still for 15 minutes after having 33 needles pressed into his back? Nope. So D had The Mayor's head and shoulders and I had the waist and legs and we literally held him down for 15 minutes. The Mayor was literally drenched in sweat after those looooooong 15 minutes finally passed. Nothing welted up. The doctor came in and told us the skin testing only appears positive if you are really allergic, meaning on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is not allergic and 10 is highly allergic), skin testing will only become positive if you are an 8,9 or 10. It still doesn't mean you aren't allergic. So then comes round 2 of testing...intradermal testing.

Intradermal testing is when they actually inject the liquid into your arm so it really gets into your system to detect an allergy. The nurse came back in with 10 syringes lined up in a row. Me, D and a nurse wrangled The Mayor into a position where he couldn't move while the 2nd nurse stabbed my baby's arm with 10 syringes one by one.

After 43 stabs with needles, The Mayor isn't allergic to anything. So why all the issues? We still don't know. The x-rays he had 2 weeks ago indicted infection in the right and left sinuses and slightly enlarged tonsils. We are on day 12 of a 20 day cycle of antibiotics. After the cycle of antibiotics we go back for another round of x-rays and if he still has infection in his sinuses then we go to an ENT.

Hopefully, one day, we will get The Mayor's diet and sinus issues under control and get some answers.

We are now back home and all of us are just exhausted. Love Bug is tired from being woken up at 7:15 this morning to go to Meega's and I think it is pretty clear why the rest of us are tired. Bedtime is going to be extra early tonight.