Still Allergic to Egg

Last week I took Jed to the allergist to be re-tested.

In about ten days, we hope to start an egg trial for Zac’s FPIES, but we are understandably concerned about doing this since Jed is so terribly IgE allergic to eggs.

It seemed prudent to get him re-tested to A. see if he’d managed to outgrow his egg allergy or B. at least see about getting refills on our Epi-pens and making sure the allergist remembered us…in case.

Jed endured the SPT (skin prick test) fairly well, as usual. His biggest complaint was that he wanted to be in the lobby, where the good doctor had a TRAIN TABLE for the kids to play with! We battled keeping Jed in the exam room for the duration of the test!

I’m sure you can imagine my sheer joy when the results were announced: NO skin prick reactions at all!

Well, he had a little +/- bump for Timothy Grass, peanuts, and dog, but those are hardly worth noting for us.

Unlike last year, though, Jed showed no reaction to any of the foods we tested – including egg!

My little brain immediately started concocting recipes I could make for Jed! How much easier would some of my recipes be if I could just add a single egg! Oh, joy!

Considering how bad his egg allergy has been, though, neither the allergist or I wanted to get ahead of ourselves. Jed needed a blood draw for the RAST test.

The kids and I trudged across the street to the lab and had Jed’s blood drawn.

This he DID have a problem with.

Ever since his Mesenteric Lymphadenitis experience, whenever he has to go to the doctor he always tells me “Doctor NOT poke me!”

If it is Zac’s turn at the doctor, Jed will inform me that “the doctor NOT poke baby brother!” (Cute, right?)

It happened while I was racing home to get our suitcases packed, but apparently the IV they put in him during that hospital visit was either poorly done or just very traumatic for Jed; prior to that he had never even commented on needles.

Sadly, my kids have seen enough needles for me to notice the change in his reaction.

Sigh.

Well, the phlebotomist drew his blood anyway, and then we drove home, eagerly awaiting news.

If the results were negative for egg, the next step was an in-office official food challenge for Jed – and I was looking very forward to it!

Not only would so much of my cooking be easier with eggs (not to mention the ease of breakfast if eggs were back on the table), but when we start the food trial for Zac, I wouldn’t have to be terrified of having eggs in the house with Jed around!

Jed, after all, is a stubborn child who thinks eggs are fascinating. Even though he knows eggs will make him sick if he eats them, he constantly wants me to get him those hollow plastic Easter eggs to play with, and begs to help my Dad gather eggs from the chicken coop when we visit.

I have no doubts that with eggs in my fridge, Jed will do everything in his power to sneak in and play with them when I’m not looking.

Last time he did that, the results were scary. I now know we should have shot him with the Epi-pen and taken him to the hospital.

We got lucky.

I don’t want to press my luck.

So I was very excited by the lack of results on the SPT!

Tuesday morning the allergist called with the results.

Turns out, Jed is still allergic to eggs, she said. Then she wanted to know if we picked up the Epi-pen prescriptions. 

There goes my good news!

It’s not all bad, however. Last year he was a category 2 on the RAST and had a 5/10 on the SPT, as well.

This year there was no reaction on the SPT and he’s only a category 1 on the RAST.

So he is – perhaps – growing out of it. (Though when he was one year old, his results were almost exactly what they are now and then worsened, so no guarantees that he won’t worsen again by next year.)

All I know is that when we start the egg trial for Zac, we will be getting hard core about kitchen safety.

There may be a more elegant way of accomplishing the goal of Jed-proofing my fridge, but for sheer certainty, I think we will have a metal chain and padlock around our fridge handles.

The child is very smart, clever, and incredibly stubborn, after all.

I can’t risk his life by being anything less than resolute in keeping him separated from the eggs.

Sigh.

Obviously this was a little bit of a bummer for us. Anyone have some good news to share?

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The photo in this post was taken last year when Jed reacted to trace eggs. Don’t worry – he hasn’t had a recent reaction!