The Allergist Appointment

First of all, I really like the allergist that saw Maya yesterday, Dr. Hellmers. He is really nice, and explained everything to her before he did it and got some of the testing done yesterday, at our initial intake appointment. I thought he would have us schedule another time for that, so it was nice to get some information yesterday (and to pay one fewer $50 copay). They tested her for the top 16 allergens and the only ones that she has a mild allergy to are weeds and dogs. She was really cooperative and didn't even get too upset about being stabbed in the back 16 times. It was all at once, so at least that helped. He said as long as we don't have a dog ourselves, petting neighborhood dogs is fine. That's good, because she loves dogs. She is not allergic to milk, which was one suspicion I had about what has caused her recurring ear infections. Next he wants to test her for candida overgrowth (yeast) which can be caused by too many antibiotics and can cause all sorts of problems and for PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections) which can cause symptoms such as OCD-like behavior and tics. Mainly he just wants to rule that out, he doesn't think she has it. I am more interested in the yeast test personally. While I don't think that will help us get to the bottom of her ear infections, it may help us figure out a few other things, or at least rule it out as a problem. I didn't take her to get blood drawn yesterday because she had already been poked 16 times and been a good sport about it all. One of the things we started trying to do with Maya early on was to end things while we were still being successful, not wait for the meltdown after having pushed her to far. That seems to work well for us. So next up are the blood test and the dental work. I'll keep you posted.