New year, new challenges
I sent Corey off to school this morning with much tribulation. It’s been a rough couple of days with his eczema and allergic symptoms flaring. Ordinarily, I would have reached for the antihistamine seeing how uncomfortable he is. But owing to our upcoming allergist review today, we’ve had to stop the medicines.
In just TWO days without the allergy meds, the symptoms were back with a vengeance. His eyes are red and rashy. He complains that his eyes are super itchy. And has been scratching his head and neck vigorously.
His dustmite allergy taking front and centre attention – time to consider sublingual immunotherapy?
He would wake up sneezing, have a constant stuffy nose, on top of the increased itch. It is very obvious to me that his dust-mite allergy is the one wreaking havoc.
No matter how much cleaning and sunning we do of his pillows and bedding, its takes so little exposure to the allergen to get his dust mite allergy symptoms going that I am at my wits end.
So this will be the centre of my discussion with the doctor. We had previously discussed briefly about sublingual immunotherapy for his dust-mite allergy. Today, I am quite sure we are ready, in fact I have been training Corey to hold a tiny piece of grape under his tongue for one minute. But more on that in my next post.
His Dairy allergy getting worse?
At our last skin prick in November 2019, Corey’s diary allergy was sky high. The wheal was so big doctor postulated that Corey’s reaction is upon contact with dairy. This also means an increased risk of anaphylactic shock if he ever consumes dairy.
True enough, in January 2020, Corey had 2 allergic reactions in school, probably owing to milk cross-contamination from his classmates.
Dust allergy also acting up in school
Corey hadn’t been napping in school for a while now. Teachers said his nose would bother him to the point he can’t rest.
Corey’s skin is changing
One important factor that most parents forget in their eczema and allergy journey is the fact that children’s skin change as they grow and therefore so will their eczema and allergies. Ever wondered why a moisturiser suddenly stopped being effective? It’s not because the skin has become resistant to the moisturiser. But rather the skin may have changed. One way I found
Just keeping this simple fact in mind gives me a lot of information when I am making notes about Corey’s condition.
His skin from a 3 year old to now 4 year old is getting thicker, thus the eczema is getting thicker. His joints, elbows, ankles were getting more tough spots that responded less to moisturising.
He missed 3 baked egg challenges in hospital
At our last skin prick test in November 2019, there was a glimmer of hope that his egg allergy levels had come down significantly. Thus the doctor recommended we could try a baked egg challenge in a hospital setting.
Unfortunately, we had to postpone the baked egg challenge THREE times. It was either allergic reactions or falling sick.
Countdown to doctor’s review in 3 hours…
So many moments in the last few days I thought I’d have to cave and give him the allergy meds. But we hung on, watched him like a hawk. With calamine and ice packs ready next to him. Last few hours left to doctor’s review, here’s praying no drama unfolds to derail our trip. For with severe allergics and chronic eczema, I know all too well that anything can happen at a moment’s notice.
Check back later for my post on our doctor’s review 🙂
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