Is it horrible that I reflect back upon those days as a fabulous team-building time with our allergist? He definitely got to KNOW us very well in those days-- and I know that it changed his impression of me from "hysterical mom" to "level-headed and even fairly calm" and dramatically changed his attitudes about DD as a patient-- he knows that she is not exaggerating a thing in terms of her reactivity and sensitivity.
He knows that we aren't over-reactive, if that makes sense. If anything we tend to UNDER-react very significantly. That understanding means that when we ask for him to go to bat for DD, he does it, without a lot of skepticism.
I will also say that I think those experiences opened DD's eyes a lot, too, and let her understand that multi-system symptoms should ALWAYS be taken seriously-- a hive and a runny nose is technically anaphylactic, if mild, and should be monitored closely even if you happen to have a crash cart ten feet away.
Strangely, though, it let us experience a LOT of reactivity at that grade 1 level and as a result, we don't tend to panic during reactions now.
Does that make sense? It was valuable, but I never would have said so in the first year.