Results of ENT Specialist

Allie met with an ENT Specialist last Wednesday.  I really had no idea what to expect since we had never been to a doctor like him before.  To my delight, it went great.  The doctor was very knowledgeable and took a lot of time with us.  He walked into the room, introduced himself and said, "I know all about Allie - several doctors in the area have contacted me about her case".  Hmmmm....not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but since he knew all about her, it was nice to hear the doctors take on her story. Basically he heard her story correctly and knew all the tests and procedures that were previously done.  He even knew about the abundance of pseudomonia bacteria in her stool - pretty impressive I think.

Anyway, Dr. Edmonsen (ENT Doctor) wasn't letting us leave his office that day without starting allergy testing for Allie.  Allie had food allergy tested (via blood) at the Mayo Clinic and she wasn't allergic to anything.  Dr. Edmonsen isn't a fan of the blood test so he wanted to do the skin testing right away.  So, poor little Allie endured 20 pokes in her back and sat there for 20 minutes while her back itched and burned.  But, the outcome was good - no allergies.  Here is a list of what they tested her for: milk/ soy/ corn/ beef/ chicken/ wheat/ potato/ egg/ oat/ rice/ peanut/ cashews/ shrimp/ and cod.

Not a one (besides the test poke) created an allergic reaction.  To be honest, I wasn't surprised.  Like I mentioned before all of Allie's tests come back NORMAL!!  Per Dr. Brown and Dr. Edmonsen's recommendations, Allie will have further allergy testing via the patch method.  According to Dr. Edmonsen, your body reacts to allergens in two ways 1) reacts immediately (blood or skin test) 2) reacts within 48 hours/delayed type reaction (patch test).  The 48 hour reaction is more severe and more often goes undiagnosed because according to Dr. Edmmonsen, "they only do patch testing on very medically ill or medically challenged patients".   But....Allie is a great candidate for the patch testing - thank goodness.  When your body reacts to an allergy in 48 hours, it creates eosinophils - which was found in Allie's esophagus during all 3 of her previous endoscopy's.  So, Dr. Edmonsen is guessing Allie has a severe allergy to something it's just a matter of figuring it out.  If she is allergic to something and is diagnosed with EE (Eosinophilic Esophagitis) that could be the whole reason she doesn't like to eat orally.  I don't want to get my hopes up because there is still a high chance Allie doesn't have EE but it is a possibility - plus having EE is not a great diagnosis, it means a medical condition for life.  However - it would give us answers and at this point, answers is what we are searching for.

Before we left Dr. Edmonsen's office, he highly recommended us to proceed with Allie's colon scope and endoscopy.  He is not a GI doctor but he was very surprised that Allie has never had a colon scope done before.  He said that Allie's colon could be full of eosinophils and that would provide a lot more information as to why she doesn't eat.  So, since two doctors are recommending these procedures, Matt and I decided to proceed with them.  I hate to put Allie through this - it breaks my heart but if it provides us answers, it will be worth it.  Allie's patch testing (allergy testing) is scheduled from December 14th to December 17th, however the only date to get her in for her endoscopy and colon scope is December 17th - so we might have to rearrange her patch testing date. 

Our poor little pumpkin has to get blood drawn tomorrow to test for the following:
 - Cellac
 - C Reactive Protein
 - Iron
 - Iron and Iron binding capacity
 - Sedientation Rate
 - Vitamin B12
 -Vitamin B12 / Folate
One of the above is suppose to test for a gluten sensitivity - this is another possible diagnosis.  We were suppose to get her blood drawn last Wednesday but after having the allergy testing, I couldn't put her through anymore that day so we opted to avoid the blood draw until Monday.  Allie gets so traumatized going to the doctors office it's awful. 

I'll end with a couple pictures of Allie getting her skin allergy testing.  She did pretty well and even cracked a smile several times - she's such a tough little girl, I'm so proud of her!

This was right after they picked her with the pokes - ouchy

This is what her back looked like 2 minutes into the test

Allie was very mad at the nurse!

Allie happy because the nurse brought her a basket of stickers

Playing with all the stickers

This is what her back looked like 20 minutes into the test (basically the end) - nothing too exciting besides the test poke on the bottom right. 

free hit counters