Milk Challenge

Gavin had his milk challenge yesterday. This time he made it about half way through the challenge before we had to stop. A year ago last May he made it seven minutes into the challenge and had red around his mouth after only rubbing milk on his lips. This time he was on his fifth or sixth "dose" before some red spots started appearing around his lips. He got three below and one above and they all faded in a short amount of time without any medicine. The dr. said he may be dealing with threshold issues - meaning his body can take a certain amount and then can't handle any more. He decided to let us try again in six months rather than waiting the customary one year. He really believes he will outgrow it, as our previous allergist did as well.

Gavin was upset about it. When the nurse left to get the dr. he asked me if he had a hive. When I told him we thought he might he said he didn't want one. When the nurse and dr. came back in and we were all staring at his mouth trying to determine what was going on, he started to cry and press himself into me. The dr. asked him if he wanted more milk and he said no. The dr. took that as another reason not to go on, but I know it was from embarassment rather than a lack of desire, not feeling well, etc. Later when only the nurse was in the room he asked if he could have more and she told him no. He got teary eyed again and that got me crying as well.

The allergist told us it was a good sign that he got further than before and that the risks of accidental exposure and skin contact were less of a concern. This is a huge improvement as we couldn't even touch his skin with dairy on our hands without him breaking out in hives previously.

I would not be honest if I didn't say that I'm disappointed. I was cautiously optimistic beforehand, hoping that the four hour trip (there and back) was not a waste of time. I reminded myself that it's important to get get things clinically documented so we know exactly where he is at. When he passed the first, second, and third "doses" I thought he was going to pass. I started taking pictures so we could put it in his scrapbook. So needless to say it was somewhat of a shock to suddenly see pink marks.

We'll keep praying nightly for healing as we have for the past four and a half years. And we'll look forward to his next appointment with hope that maybe he will finally have outgrown his dairy allergy.