Fast forward to this spring and poor Cody was miserable again - lots of snorting, red eyes, etc. We tried all of the over-the-counter medicines to no avail and finally ended up getting him a prescription allergy medicine that also didn't seem to help. I finally gave in and made an appointment for him to see a pediatric allergist. Unfortunately, there are not many pediatric allergists around and the one I chose is very popular, so we had to wait 2 months to get an appointment. During this wait, Cody improved greatly and I almost cancelled the appointment thinking it must have just been a bad cold. I am so glad I didn't cancel!
At the appointment, I explained all of his symptoms and described how no medicines seem to give him any relief; the doctor decided to do a skin test to see what might be affecting him most. The skin test consisted of drops of different liquids that were put onto little plastic tips. The doctor and nurse then touched each of the tips to his back to put the liquid on his skin. There were 32 tips of liquid total, but the tips were attached to trays (8 tips per tray), so it was a quick application process (the doctor and nurse each applied 2 trays in about 2 seconds). And then we had to wait...for 15 minutes...with Cody unable to touch his back that was getting itchier and itchier by the minute. It was the longest 15 minutes ever and he just didn't understand why 1. he couldn't put his shirt back on, 2. his back was so itchy, and 3. why his mama was pinning his arms down to keep him from wiping the itchy liquid off.
When the doctor finally came back into the room, she took one look at his back and said, "whoa...I knew he was going to react, but I didn't expect him to react this badly." She quickly measured the hives that had formed on his back (the larger the welt = the more allergic), wiped off the liquid, and applied hydrocortisone cream. Soon after, the itching stopped, the welts went down, and Cody was a happy boy with a sucker in his hand.
And then the discussion with Dr. Marks began, starting off with, "we'll be seeing a lot of you" and "he might just be the most allergic 3 year old patient I have right now". My heart sank. Apparently, Cody is highly allergic to several tree, grass, and weed pollens, specifically red oak, white ash, and cottonwood (he measured at 15+) as well as black walnut, english plantain (weed), and ragweed (measuring at 11). Several other trees, grasses, and weeds he measured at 8 or 9 ---- I should state that anything 4 and under is considered normal!
The doctor explained that starting March 15 (regardless of whether there is a foot of snow on the ground or not), we will be giving Cody both Claritin and Singulair daily through October. If we don't start the meds before the pollen starts, he will have no chance of relief. He has to have the meds built up in his system to attack the histamines in his body once pollen starts to release. He'll also have eye drops he can use and nose spray that can give him extra relief (if we can get him to let us use them on him). When he's around 6 years old, he will be old enough to have allergy shots, which will likely be weekly shots.
This spring in Michigan was a bit different then normal; we had such a late winter that the normal early spring pollen didn't release until later, so we had double pollen from trees, weeds and grasses. The reason no medicines were helping Cody was because they were started too late, and given how allergic he is, there was no way his body could fight off the histamines by that time. The little bit of relief he got later in the summer was the brief break in pollen.
I'm so glad I kept the appointment and as much as I hate knowing how allergic he is, I am so thankful we now know so that we can give him relief this spring when the pollen starts all over again. I am very hopeful that he will eventually grow out of it.
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