Clara's Bad Morning

I took Clara to her first of two allergy tests this morning. I'm no expert, but even I could tell the girl has a few allergies before the nurse told me the results.

This was only environmental allergies too. We go back on Wednesday and they'll test for food allergies. They'll also retest the ones that were negative today.

Clara was just slightly traumatized by the whole ordeal. We prepped her for what was going to happen, but I didn't know she'd have to lay on her stomach for 20 minutes before the nurse read the results. I also didn't count on how badly she was going to be hurting if there were lots of reactions.

The nurse quickly left the room right after administering the "owie things" only pausing long enough to tell me to keep her lying still for 20 minutes and to fan her back because it would probably be itching. She was screaming and thrashing, completely trashing the paper on the bed. I was almost lying on top of her trying to keep her on her stomach. She kept that up for probably 5 minutes before I was able to calm her down with the promise of a trip to the toy store. (She's the proud new owner of a Belle doll).

After 20 minutes, the nurse wiped off the allergens. Poor thing. I didn't realize the stuff was actually just sitting on her skin the whole time. Then she got some cream and we were good to go. She still hurt and whined for a good 15 minutes or so. A trip to Daddy's office brightened things up for her, especially since he swung by the vending machine for some cookies before coming out to see us.

The reactions are rated between 0 and 4. She had several zeros, a couple of 2's and the majority were 4's. This is news to me because I've never considered her to have terrible environmental allergies. She gets a stuffy, runny nose in the spring when everyone else does, and I do believe there's something in Pecos that gets her everytime, but other than that, she really doesn't seem to have problems. She got 4's on all but one tree I think. Half of the grasses were 4's as well. Dogs and cats were 0's and there was one dust mite that was a 2.

So, Chris will definitely be going back with us on Wednesday. We had already planned on him going, but now I know for sure I need him there since she knows what to expect. For the second test, we have to cover her back with lidocaine and then tape plastic wrap over it an hour before her appointment.

If I'm not mistaken, they'll be doing this same prick test for foods and then injections to retest for the ones that were negative today. I could be mistaken though; they weren't real clear on that. They said to expect to be there for 2 hours. Ugh. But we will get the results and actually be talking to the doctor when it's all over.