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Author Topic: New to the board, new to anaphylaxis  (Read 2505 times)

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Carrie

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New to the board, new to anaphylaxis
« on: May 11, 2014, 08:52:26 PM »
Hi, All.
I'm Carrie, mom to 6 kids, the youngest of whom just had his 2nd ana episode.  He's 5, and has had eczema since he was a baby, was dx'd with asthma and environmental allergies (dog, cat, dust mites, nettles) when he was 3-ish.  We had food testing done (skin and bloodwork) and he never showed positive for any food allergies that way. A naturopath did EAV testing when he was 2, and found sensitivities to dairy, soy, peanuts, eggs.  So we went ahead and eliminated those from his diet, and seemed to see some improvement in his skin, but we were never really vigilant about hidden exposures.

March 28th I gave him some mixed nuts with lunch.  (Almonds, cashews, pecans with cinnamon and sugar.  They had been processed in a plant that also does peanut).  Within two minutes, he was swelling, breaking out in hives, peed himself, threw up, and started wheezing and drooling.  I threw him in the car and sped to the ER. (About a 14 minute trip normally, I think I made it in about 9).  They administered an epipen, his swelling and hives got better, but wheezing got worse, so they did another epi and admitted him for observation overnight.

So, since then, we've completely eliminated nuts.  He had blood tests done on April 28th.  (After waiting for the prednisone to get out of his system, and then he had a resp. virus so I waited an additional week-ish.)  We got an appt with his allergist for this coming Thursday. 
Well, just this last Friday, I was on my way out the door to a baby shower and had gotten Little Caesar's pizza/crazy bread for the kids.  (He doesn't eat the pizza, but has had the crazy bread many times with no issues.)  As I was leaving I heard my oldest two boys arguing about whether Jotham (the  year old) is actually allergic, or just doesn't like certain things.  He had started crying after eating a breadstick (he LOVES them) and said they were making his mouth "spicy".  He again began to swell up, drool, and wheeze.  I called 9-11 and administered his epi-pen.  This time we rode in the ambulance.  They gave him a breathing treatment at the ER, oral prednisone, observed him for 5 hours, then sent us home again.

We were able to get his lab results from the blood work, since he had it done there, and his IgE level was over 5000.  He has what look like significantly high #s for cashew (38.90), pistachio (59.60), egg (yolk 3.10 white 28), milk (52.90), and maybe walnut (6.79) and peanut (3.35).  Soy is only .73.

I am wondering, though, how accurate these reults are, given that his IgE levels are so very high right now?  Something to talk about with the allergist, I know. 
Also... what in the world might have caused his reaction this second time, especially given that he had eaten it at least one other time between the two episodes and not had a problem. 

Well... this turned into a bit of a book, so bravo if you read the whole thing.  Looking forward to learning more from all of you as we take on this new challenge.

Offline momma2boys

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Re: New to the board, new to anaphylaxis
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2014, 10:16:59 PM »
Wow, scary reactions. I'm sorry you have to join us, but welcome. I know you will receive lots of good advice. I don't know for sure about ige level affecting his results.

The second reaction, it was only crazy bread? Nothing before?

Hopefully we can all help you figure things out.
peanut, treenut, sesame
Northeast, US

Offline rebekahc

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Re: New to the board, new to anaphylaxis
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2014, 08:26:37 AM »
So sorry your son has developed food allergies!  You're not the first person here to react to Little Caesar's even though the ingredients seem fine - over the years I've heard of a few others reacting, too.  I don't know if anyone ever figured out the cause...

However, I'm sure the crazy bread is contaminated with milk (if it doesn't have it as an outright ingredient).  Since you've been avoiding milk (based on the test results from the naturopath) and now his RAST test shows an allergy to milk and his system is primed from the recent reaction, it could be he reacted very strongly to milk in the Crazy Bread.
TX - USA
DS - peanut, tree nut, milk, eggs, corn, soy, several meds, many environmentals. Finally back on Xolair!
DD - mystery anaphylaxis, shellfish.
DH - banana/avocado, aspirin.  Asthma.
Me - peanut, tree nut, shellfish, banana/avocado/latex,  some meds.