Look at his poor little arm
Sep. 1st, 2004 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muck_a_luckThe Small Boy has his trip to the allergist yesterday.
Around his birthday, we went to my parents'. They have 8 cats. The Small Boy had an attack of frightening proportions. That much snot shouldn't be able to come out of one person, especially one as small as The Small Boy.
So, this summer, when he was going down for his two-week visit, we were all planning to be alert to see if the same thing happened again. To make a long story short, he had three incidents when he was down there, two of which seemed to be connected to visiting my BROTHER, who has 3 cats. Then he had a big attack including asthma-type wheezing when he got home. The attacks in NC all lasted about 36 hours. The one upon return home lasted about a week.
Because of the wheezing, we were particularly concerned. But we have insurance now, and we wanted to take action quickly if this is allergies, so we went to the pediatrician, who thought it all sounded suspicious enough to refer us over to an allergist, so there we were.
So we find the office very easily, fill out the paperwork, and have some time to wait. While we were waiting, a boy came in for his first shots. I have never seen anyone so purely terrified in my entire life. It was so pitiful. This kid was about 8 or 9, I would guess. He was whimpering, barely keeping back tears. Eventually did start crying. Clinging to his mother. Begging to go to the bathroom. Nearly hyperventilated when they took him in for the shot. And these people kept making him wait. The nurse needed to give his mother some instructions before the shot about how to use the epi-pen in case of a reaction to the shot. They should have given the shot first, talked afterwards. I'm sure that is not best practice, but the kid was there in the chair. If he had a reaction while still in the office, the nurse was going to handle it anyway, right? So why not put the kid out of his misery and give his mother the boring lecture after? This was very unpleasant, and I felt so bad for the guy. Very badly managed patient, I thought. And of course, Small Boy was there, witnessing it all with big eyes. Though he didn't seem particularly scared.
The Small Boy himself had 12 skin tests.
An adult would get 40-45, the doctor told me. But this was what she described as a "screening," testing the most important and common weed, grass and tree pollens, molds, and cats and dust mites. His only positive tests were for cat dander and cat pelt. We got instructions on preventative measures and we will be tracking his peak flow breathing and we have all his meds in. Actually, because he doesn't have much regular reaction to Lana, she thinks that his allergy is dose related. Daily exposure to our cat not really a problem, but occassional exposure to 8-11 cats a bigger deal! She says keep Lana out of his room. Run the HEPA filter "37" hours a day. And treat him as if he is allergic to dust mites, because he probably will be eventually.
And that was it.
In other Small Boy news, had a lego crisis. His new legos came in the mail yesterday, and the Yeti was missing about a dozen parts. I am going to call them today and see if they won't just send a whole new box. But after being incredibly brave all day, barely a whimper over the skin tests, well behaved during boring self-treatment lectures, he grieved the Yeti. Just cried and cried over it. Eventually cried himself to sleep, I think. Poor baby. What a good, sweet boy.
Around his birthday, we went to my parents'. They have 8 cats. The Small Boy had an attack of frightening proportions. That much snot shouldn't be able to come out of one person, especially one as small as The Small Boy.
So, this summer, when he was going down for his two-week visit, we were all planning to be alert to see if the same thing happened again. To make a long story short, he had three incidents when he was down there, two of which seemed to be connected to visiting my BROTHER, who has 3 cats. Then he had a big attack including asthma-type wheezing when he got home. The attacks in NC all lasted about 36 hours. The one upon return home lasted about a week.
Because of the wheezing, we were particularly concerned. But we have insurance now, and we wanted to take action quickly if this is allergies, so we went to the pediatrician, who thought it all sounded suspicious enough to refer us over to an allergist, so there we were.
So we find the office very easily, fill out the paperwork, and have some time to wait. While we were waiting, a boy came in for his first shots. I have never seen anyone so purely terrified in my entire life. It was so pitiful. This kid was about 8 or 9, I would guess. He was whimpering, barely keeping back tears. Eventually did start crying. Clinging to his mother. Begging to go to the bathroom. Nearly hyperventilated when they took him in for the shot. And these people kept making him wait. The nurse needed to give his mother some instructions before the shot about how to use the epi-pen in case of a reaction to the shot. They should have given the shot first, talked afterwards. I'm sure that is not best practice, but the kid was there in the chair. If he had a reaction while still in the office, the nurse was going to handle it anyway, right? So why not put the kid out of his misery and give his mother the boring lecture after? This was very unpleasant, and I felt so bad for the guy. Very badly managed patient, I thought. And of course, Small Boy was there, witnessing it all with big eyes. Though he didn't seem particularly scared.
The Small Boy himself had 12 skin tests.
An adult would get 40-45, the doctor told me. But this was what she described as a "screening," testing the most important and common weed, grass and tree pollens, molds, and cats and dust mites. His only positive tests were for cat dander and cat pelt. We got instructions on preventative measures and we will be tracking his peak flow breathing and we have all his meds in. Actually, because he doesn't have much regular reaction to Lana, she thinks that his allergy is dose related. Daily exposure to our cat not really a problem, but occassional exposure to 8-11 cats a bigger deal! She says keep Lana out of his room. Run the HEPA filter "37" hours a day. And treat him as if he is allergic to dust mites, because he probably will be eventually.
And that was it.
In other Small Boy news, had a lego crisis. His new legos came in the mail yesterday, and the Yeti was missing about a dozen parts. I am going to call them today and see if they won't just send a whole new box. But after being incredibly brave all day, barely a whimper over the skin tests, well behaved during boring self-treatment lectures, he grieved the Yeti. Just cried and cried over it. Eventually cried himself to sleep, I think. Poor baby. What a good, sweet boy.
awwww
Date: 2004-09-03 01:30 am (UTC)jb
Re: awwww
Date: 2004-09-03 01:51 am (UTC)