Allergy Update

Yesterday we had Josephine's first allergy appointment since the original discovery of her peanut allergy two years ago.  Here's the full report:

• The "bad" news: The doctor did not want to re-test her for peanuts because he said there is "about a 0% chance she will outgrow such a severe allergy." He said he'd like to wait until she is a teenager to re-test her and that we should continue to very closely monitor any potential exposure to peanuts.
• The "good" news: The doctor said there is very little likelihood of her developing any additional food allergies since she has made it to age 3 without any new ones surfacing. This is good news, because it means she does not and should not develop a tree nut allergy.  He advised us to make sure to avoid all tree nuts anyway because many peanut reactions come from cross-contaminated nuts of other types.
• The "ah-ha" news: Josie was diagnosed with dermographic urticaria a.k.a. dermographism or "skin-writing disorder." This explains all the bumps, scratches, and hives that she has gotten since she was a baby that we couldn't attribute to anything in particular (i.e. if you remove a band-aid, it will leave raised welts for several hours; spaghetti straps leave hives on her shoulders; sunglasses leave a raised welt on the bridge of her nose). What's good about this news is that is completely harmless. What's bad about it is that it's not curable, she'll have it forever, and it can be a real annoyance. It also complicates her peanut allergy because we can never assume that any hives she gets are from dermographism and not from potential peanut exposure.  Click HERE or HERE for more info on the condition.  (We are SOOOO relieved to know what this is & to find out it's not another hidden allergy! Note also that people with this condition suffer from difficulty sleeping - ah-ha!)

All in all, we still feel very lucky that Josie only has one allergy and that she hasn't had a reaction since the first one. This appointment also served as an important reminder to Louie & I that we have to remain very vigilant as her allergy is indeed severe and life-threatening.  (I'll admit, no reaction in two years started to make me feel foolishly relaxed about it.)  So, thanks again to all of you who go the extra mile for Josie in terms of her allergy and thanks for continuing to do so.  As we heard at the parent's night at her school, "It's not an inconvenience, it's a child."