Taylor's allergy testing

Today I took Taylor in for allergy testing as his zyrtec is not working well anymore. Well we were quite surprised with the results. I know Tara has seen how they allergy test but if you havent been there for it, it was something else. They had him lay on his back and marked a grid of dots with a purple pen then next to each dot they "pricked" his with a needle with an allergen inside. Total in all was somewhere between 36-40 pricks. You then wait 15 minutes and see if he develops a wheal or a spot that looks like a mosquito bite on top of a red welt or hive. Well he had reactions to 3/4 of the all the shots. I tried to get a picture for you all but didnt have much luck with my camera. Anyways the verdict is that he is allergic to almost all of the trees, grasses, and weeds. He is NOT allergic to inside allergens (cat, dog, cockroach, dust mites), molds or foods. We are testing him with blood to check his pineapple reaction as he has had bad reactions to eating it. That poor child had hives all over his back and he was NOT allowed to scratch them. He will begin getting allergy shots now as his allergies all ranked 3 or 4. (4 is the worst reaction). He is also taking zyrtec, two different nasal sprays, and patanol (for his eyes), in addition to the allergy shots he will get upto twice a week. He also was given an epipen for his pineapple allergy as his reactions have been bad in the past. He has one the epipens for school as well because he likes to eat school lunches and they serve pineapple. Bryan thinks we should take Taylor and Annaliese and put them in a big bubble and leave them there.

Some great news

We had Annaliese's hemo appt today and we were surprised with an ANC of 2200. She had her shot schedule revised about two weeks ago and now we are giving then every 5 days instead of Mon and Thur. Today we fully expected her to be at 0 as she has not had a shot for 5 days (she is due tonight) but she has a great ANC. When I questioned the dr whether or not this was meds and her adjusting I was told NO THIS IS HER OWN BODY, meaning it is working without the meds. YEAH!!!! If this trend continues then it is very likely that she has autoimmune neutropenia and she may be on the road to recovery. We couldn't be happier right now. We go back in three weeks and if she is still maintaining her ANC on her low points then we will space her injections out even more until she doesn't need them anymore. We are so excited about this prospect. On the other hand she is now being tested for a blood disorder called Von Willebrande (VWB). She has had bruising up and down her spine and across her lower back off and on for quite a while now. She gets bruises on her body that we can not explain and so they are checking into it as the dr was concerned this last time we saw him. Now let me add that I am sure you are thinking cancer as this is a BIG sign of leukemia BUT her platelet counts are great (even very high at points) so this is NOT a concern. If you search VWB then it will explain what it is but is something her ped. mentioned even when she was a newborn. They did the work up today on her and we should now the results in about a month. Just a little funny about our appt today... Annaliese has viens that are very small and love to roll. I have the same problem and am a VERY HARD stick because of it. They normally have to stick her twice (on a good day, more most often) to get the one tube we need for her CBC. However today they needed four tubes to get the workup done. Our hemo has their own blood drawing staff and we always have the same lady (I can never remember her name though) and when they told her that they need four tubes today she started to cry. She came in and kept telling me she didnt think she could get it. She just kept repeating "You want four tubes from Annaliese Malcolm and I am lucky to even get one each time." over and over. It was quite funny but after two pokes and TONS of proding with the needle they were able to get blood from her hand.

Taylor's Baptism

I just wanted to invite you all to Taylor's baptism this Saturday, 10 Oct. at 2pm (it could change to 4pm) at our church building. If you want to come just let us know so we have enough snacks and also if you need a place to stay so we have enough beds ready.