Allergy Testing - Brenden, 3 years old

We've taken Brenden to the allergist several times, but it's been a long time since he had a skin prick test done. The first, and only, time he had it done he was 7 months old. The nurse was not the best with children and actually asked me why he was still crying 15 minutes after the injections. Um...maybe because you just poked him several times with a bunch of stuff that is making him itchy and I can't stop it, or hold him correctly, because I can't touch it? RIGHT?!

After that initial test I was obviously nervous to go through it again. He's much bigger and much harder to contain at 3 years old than he was at 7 months, plus I hate taking him to the doctor when I know it will be so unpleasant. When we first walked in I was amazed at the number of things he was going to be tested for. I'm glad they were testing for all of it, but I didn't realize that they would be pricking them each individually, up and down both arms. I think I counted 34 spots. That's a lot!

I explained to Brenden that it wasn't going to be fun but that we needed to check him to see what he could still eat. Right after that the lady asked me if we were going to be testing for all of them, or just half. This did NOT ease my nervousness at all. I told her I just wanted to be done with it and braced myself for lots of screaming, thrashing, and who knows what else. She handed him a sucker, pointed to the cartoons playing on the television, and starting pricking.

He just sat there. He did say "ooooh" and shake a bit, which he does when something doesn't feel good, but he held his arms still and didn't cry at all. "I expected a lot worse," I said to the nurse. Her response? "He did VERY well. It's usually not that easy." Whew!

Then we had to wait. Twenty minutes of me holding his hands, telling him to keep his arms straight, and blowing on his arms to keep him from itching. Somehow he was able to sit there and even let me take a few pictures.

This is how he sat the whole time. He did so well!

Every number or letter, plus the circles, are where she pricked him.

The results? He's allergic to egg yolks, but not egg whites, cockroaches, dust mites, mold and cats. That last one really shocked me because he didn't react at all to dogs, like he did during his first test, and I know that he has reacted when he came in contact with dogs not too long ago. Maybe he's becoming less sensitive to it. Either way, none of the allergies are life threatening, just skin allergies, and we don't have to change anything in his diet. I'm not sure when we'll have a follow up appointment but I'm not worried.

I'm so thankful to have this over with! And I'm also thankful that it was so much easier than I anticipated. Brenden surprises me every day!

ETA: The allergy clinic called me back to let me know that the doctor reviewed the results and he is now only allergic to cats and dust mites. Being the crazy person that I am, I decided to test their results. Brenden has ALWAYS reacted to eggs when they were raw-ish, usually in salad dressing. I grabbed an egg, separated the yolk and the egg white, and rubbed a little on each of his arms. You know what happened? Nothing. Zip. Nada. No bumps. No itching.

How in the world did this happen?!? I'm not complaining! I'm just confused. How could he have been so very allergic and now be totally fine? Fine enough that they are allowing him to get the flu shot. How could he be so allergic to dogs and now it's cats? Our bodies are amazing things.