Jesus, Joseph and Mary … who knew sitting in an examination room for 90 minutes having an allergist talk non-stop about your kid would be so exhausting?
Not to mention stressful. My teeth ached like nobody’s business afterwards from all the clenching.
I was a shell of a mother when we finally staggered out with various prescriptions, a new anaphylaxis plan and a list of pharmaceutical items that needed to be purchased.
It turns out the youngest now has two auto-immune issues and is about to be tested for a third. In addition to eczema she has something called CSU and needs to have a blood test for coeliac disease.
A hastily scribbled family tree was created that showed my ex most probably carries the gene, since both his brother and sister have coeliac children. It also shows how the youngest had very little chance of avoiding auto-immune issues once you add my dad’s rheumatoid arthritis to the mix.
In the meantime, we need to get the CSU under control. It stands for Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria and basically means everything makes her itchy in a way that’s unrelated to eczema. Poor her.
She needs to take between two and four antihistamines every day to get it under control.
Then there’s her allergic rhinitis, which requires steroid spray every night.
If the above don’t work we move to expensive desensitising treatments.
She also had her scratch tests done again, which went mental for dust mites, mould, pecans, walnuts and horses.
So we have a prescription for two new epi-pens and have been told to make sure she has one with her at all times.
Then we need to visit the optometrist for an eye test to see if all the rubbing of her itchy eyes has damaged her corneas, and also have blood tests for thyroid issues and low iron and Vitamin D, in addition to coeliac disease.
In the meantime, the youngest is taking iron supplements as a precaution as her last blood test a year ago revealed a deficiency.
As for her recurring stomach issues, we are going to see if doing all of the above helps, as the allergist is fairly certain it’s not food related … unless she’s coeliac.
Phew. But blardy hell!
The allergist has kindly given me pages and pages of indecipherable handwritten notes to follow. And we’d due back there at the end of March for our next appointment.
But I need to go to a doctor in the meantime and get another referral, because dermatologist referrals only last three months, compared to 12 months for one from a GP.
#discrimination
It all adds up to me needing to moonlight as a waitress. Clarityne costs $30 for 15 tablets, nasal spray is anything from $20-30 a bottle, vitamins are around $15 per bottle, allergist appointments are $150 each, who knows how much the testing will be …
But, hey, it’s only money. And I’m hopeful that, like the youngest’s eczema, we will have the other conditions under control in a couple of weeks. It would be great to have a kid who can breathe properly and doesn’t break out in hives all the time.
Song of the day: Pink “Like a pill”
housegoeshome 
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