Maddies Allergies

Since Maddie was little it seems this girl has always struggled to breathe. She is always stuffed up, breathes out of her mouth and snores. When she was a toddler she was put on every allergy medicine out there whether it was a RX or an over the counter. It all worked for a short time but then seemed to come back. Nothing worked long term. I finally took her to an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist. We were told her adenoids were huge and needed to be removed. This would cause her allergy like symtoms. And so we did. She was 6 years old. 

That 1st year after surgery she didn't snore, could breathe with her nose and we thought it had worked. But it didn't.... all her symptoms came back. So I took her back to the same specialist. To our surprise her adenoids had grown back and her tonsils had also grown since we had last been seen. Her tonsils were bigger than most grown men. So we had our 2nd surgery. Her tonsils were removed along with her adenoids again! She was 9 years old.  

Oh how this little girl has grown! She is now 14 and it's like we're back to square one and has been for a few years now. The adenoids and tonsil removal may have helped but she can still get pretty nasally and stuffed up. For the past 4 years I have been taken her to see Dr. Pinkston who can treat allergies. He tests her one at a time and then treats her. She has been treated for dairy, egg and milk allergies. She has been treated for wheat and lentil allergy. Tomato and other acidic allergies. She has been treated for radiation that comes from TV's, ipods and flourescent lighting. During regular outdoor allergies he can treat her for 2-3 trees at the same time. He picks what is in bloom and seems to be bothering most of his patients and treats her. Again it all seems to help but then her symptoms come back. It is so frustrating! Our insurance doesn't cover Dr. Pinkston's visits and it all adds up pretty quickly! 

A few weeks ago my sister, Hanna went to a different allergist who tested her for 80 different allergens all at once. I decided to take Maddie to see Dr. Penna after hearing about her experience. Thankfully our insurance covered her appointments. 

This sweet girl was pricked with 10 small needles all attached to a board. There were 8 different boards carrying different serums in like familes. Maddie got pricked 80 times in about 60 seconds. 

Within seconds the pricked area's (right shoulder to wrist and all of left arm) turned an angry red, started to swell and itch. She had to sit for 15 min while we waited for the serums to do their thing. It took all she had NOT to scratch and spread that syrum.

Ouch!

My phone camera isn't the best but I was trying to capture the welts and hives she had in the above picture. 

After about 10 min some of the pricks almost disapeared. Mostly the ones on her right shoulder. 

The nurse finally came back in and washed the serums off her arms and rubbed a special lotion that would help the itch to go away. Her comment when she first walked in was, "Well you're definetely allergic to a lot of things". Great! 

The doctor soon came in and gave us the verdict. One set of 10 were foods. The most common food allergies. Mostly the foods she was already treated for by Dr. Pinkston. She still had some reaction but after 15 min the red, itchyness had gone away and you could barely see the prick marks. These spots didn't bother Maddie at all by then. So..... she's pretty good there he said. The other 70 pricks were outdoor allergies with about 5 of those for animals, dog, cat, horse etc. She is more allergic to cats than dogs.  The crazy part is that she reacted to all 65 outdoor allergens. He said this is about every single tree and shrub found in Southern Utah. Wow!

So where do we go from here? Maddie has a perscription for Flonase that she is to take once a day. It is not harmful or addictive. She will probably be on this for the rest of her life. She was also given a perscription for Zyrtec. She is suppose to take one pill a day. This too is supposeldy not addictive nor harmful to take this often. I'm not sure how I feel about this. How can a little pill taken every single day not become addictive?

Our other option is to take her in once a week for an allergy shot. These appointments would last 1.5 hours to 2 hours each week. We live in Hurricane, the doctors office is in St. George. She would have to miss part of school once a week for these appointments. That's a lot of missing classes. 

So for now we're doing the Flonase and Zyrtec. When school is about out we'll talk about having her treated once a week during the summer and see how it goes. We can also take our list of every tree and shrub to Dr. Pinkston and have him treat those individually. But again I think we'll wait till summer when schools out.