Kylee's Allergy

I took Kylee to the allergist yesterday. I have been wanting to get her checked again to see if she is also allergic to other nuts and I had a few questions. Will her reactions ever stop or will they continue progressing and getting worse? The allergist that we went to was MUCH more helpful than the first one we went too. The first allergist we went to didn't even really tell us much, didn't tell us what to do if she has a reaction, didn't give us an epipen, was just not helpful at all.

This new allergist that we went to said that when they do the skin test, they give us a level. 1-5 is allergic, but not life threatening (those were his words) and it is on a scale of 1-20. Kylee's peanut allergy is a 16-17. That is really bad, life threatening. To hear those words, life threatening, while you are watching your little girl color a cute picture, just breaks my heart. It brings tears to my eyes. As a parent, you don't want to even think about that EVER! This is so hard, I have this pit in my stomach and heart wanting to protect her and keep her safe from anything. When I am with her, I can watch and keep an eye on her, but what do we do when she goes to school? We have to trust those teachers. That is a hard thing for a parent to do, put the life of their children in their hands.

Kylee is also allergic to walnuts, so we have to stay away from ALL nuts. Sometimes you can be allergic to peanuts and not other nuts. She is allergic to all of it. The allergist also told us what to do if she has had nuts. She did have some peanuts last year and we just watched her. He said that if she has nuts, we give her the epipen and go to the hospital. We want to stay on top of it and not let her reaction get too bad. If we get to the hospital and she is doing better, we can just wait in the parking lot for at least an hour. The epipen only lasts for about 15-30 minutes. If that wears off and she gets worse, we go into the hospital and let them give her another shot of epinephrine. I am so grateful that the allergist was so helpful. It is a scary thing, but as parents we need those scary things so that we know what to do when a reaction happens.

The allergist did say there is some research going on and he is really hoping they have some sort of cure or vaccine or shot in the next 5 years. Penicillin and milk allergies go away in 5 years, so he suggested that maybe we get her tested again in 5 years. If her peanut allergy does go away (about 10-15 percent of kids lose the allergy) he said they still don't even know what to do with them because some were given more nuts and had a reaction later.

I know that Heavenly Father never gives us something that we cannot handle and even though I am scared to death, I know that I can rely on Him and we can handle this trial. I am also very grateful for our family that are there for us and love us!