Still peanut allergic but numbers going down- yeah!

[evergreenmom]

Hi All-

I had posted a while ago in the  main board under the heading "ara h 2 results- borderline" here's a link to that post in case anyone wants to read the whole back story: ara h 2 results- borderline

Basically after a borderline IgE blood work up my sons allergist recommended a food challenge. I researched a bit and found out about peanut component testing and requested we do that before considering a food challenge. Those results he claimed to be also only border line but when I checked into it I found out they were actually considered low positive for ara h 2 the component more associated with serious clinical peanut allergy. I found info on reputable allergy (physician) websites which indicated that only those with negative ara h  2 and positive ara h 8 should be considered allergy free and move forward with food challenge and also found one study showed that patients in my sons test range were found to react to peanuts on ingestion between 70 and 90% of the time. This doc strongly recommended food challenge but everything I found suggested otherwise. I told his nurse we would deal with it over the summer and left it at that.

Well we had a super busy rest of the school year including finding out my little guy needs neurosurgery to correct a congenital condition we have been watching since infancy. Barely handling this emotionally at the moment so I won't go into more detail suffice to say we have enough on our plates without having to attempt a food challenge right now on top of major surgery, a 4-5 day hospitalization and expected lengthy, difficult recovery!

So last week I figured I'd better move forward regarding allergy stuff before his surgery as I need Epi instructions for the school in the Fall. I decided I just wasn't confident in the allergists assertions so we went to a different practice and I explained everything that's going on and he was perfectly in agreement with me that the low positive ara h 2 test results were not indicative that a food challenge should be done and furthermore he sympathized with the upcoming surgery and said even if we really thought my little guy had outgrown he wouldn't insist on testing right now just because we had enough to deal with and we likely wouldn't be able to properly follow peanut re-introduction protocols during and for weeks following my sons hospitalization.

He suggested a scratch test for peanut and also recommended doing a basic environmental profile skin test because I mentioned my son have some vision issues recently which we thought may be allergy related. Doc said the allergy may be grass as that is the big annoyance to many people around here right now. My son quickly became quite uncomfortable and itchy and had positive but relatively small reactions to dust mites and cats and then a bigger wheal for grass and of course peanut. The good news is that the peanut wheal was 8mm/25 which was about half the size of his last test two years ago! The doc said this is a positive sign he could be desensitizing... so glad to get some good news right about now!! And so glad I listened to my intuition and did my own research and didn't just blindly follow the first docs advice! Just goes to show even doctors make mistakes and you must always educate yourself and when in doubt seek a second opinion or third or....

Anyway, I wanted to thank all you wonderful dedicated moms on here who were so helpful last spring when I was figuring some of this out and also dealing with a really difficult school administration. We did finally get a 504 plan in place and the school agreed to take the precautions we had been begging for for six months... a shame it took so long but better late than  never I guess! Anyway, I just wanted to share our good news that he may eventually outgrow and also just say what a great place this is and to those of you who are here day in and out helping confused inexperienced parents through hard times you are providing a much needed service and I for one am so grateful to have found this community!

[rebekahc]

So glad you were able to find the info you needed and also found a good doc!  Sorry your DS needs surgery - hope it goes well and he heals quickly!

to you on all your hard work with the school, too!