Well, yesterday was the big day.  We were headed to the Royal Children's Hospital to see the allergy specialist, and get a handle on how serious this all is.

We decided to ride the bikes there.  It's not far, and easier/cheaper parking.  Genevieve (as usual) loved it - yelling 'Wheeee' as we rolled down the hills in her trailer.

When we got there, we checked in at the reception.  Very shortly after, Genevieve was weighed.  The nurse who weighed her ended up being the one who conducted the tests later, so that was good.  I think they try and do that - have the same friendly face all the way through.

Lego at the RCH Allergy Unit

After another short wait (punctuated by some serious Lego building), we were in to see the consultant.  The consultant gathers all the data so that the specialist can come in at the last point, to review and agree to the conclusions, and sign off on all the paperwork.

We were asked to recall any allergic/intolerant episodes - what we think caused them, and what we did.  Through this, we pretty much narrowed it down to egg and peanuts.  The consultant was very confident (as were we) that these were the only potential allergens, so that is all that was tested for.

The test itself was conducted on Genevieve's back.  The nurse told us she was going to draw on her back.  So, we'd been pretending to 'draw' smiley faces on VV's back, and allowed her to do the same to us.  When it was time, the nurse drew a few pen marks on her back, so she could easily see the areas where the test allergens were going to be applied.  She was going to use three.  The first one is a 'control'.  As far as I could ascertain, it's something that would bring about an allergic skin reaction in everyone.  This way, they can compare the allergens to what that person's natural allergic skin reaction would be.  The other two were egg, and peanut, respectively.  It's often called a 'prick' test - but really, she just gently barely 'scratched' the allergens on VV's back - probably no more distressing than the drawing with the ballpoint pen.

Within 10 minutes, the results could be reviewed.  Sure enough, all three test points had small welts, and there was some redness on the surrounding skin.  These welts were measured - the larger the welt, the worse the reaction.  In some cases, these tests can even bring about breathing troubles etc - so there were plenty of oxygen masks and medications around just in case there was the worst-case scenario (no risk for Genevieve however, based upon her previous reactions).

We then sat in with the consultant again.  No surprises.  Very mild intolerance to raw egg.  She suggested we generally avoid, but just test cooked egg options - so basically, keep doing what we've been doing.  Mild intolerance to peanuts.  They should best be avoided.

Genevieve's reactions would generally have been too mild to have an EpiPen prescribed.  However, if people live, or are going to areas where it may be difficult to get to a doctor on ambulance, then they would get one.  So, as we are going away soon, the specialist gave us a script for two EpiPen Juniors.  We also got another bottle of Clarityne.  As her intolerance is mild, if she has a reaction, the Clarityne should get it back in check.  The EpiPen is, in all likelihood, never going to be required.  We're viewing it like how you stock up on anti-stemetics and anti-diorrhea before you go on a trip - just in case.  We might also get a few things from here, to keep her safe(r) if/when we aren't around.

She was SUCH a good girl.  We also got her a nice Fisher Price piggy at the chemist.  She was pretty happy about that!  Nai rode to work and I rode home, dropped VV off at childcare, and then rode to work myself.  We had decided that we'll tell everyone that she's allergic to raw egg and peanuts - that way if we choose to try things with her, we are in control.  This means some forms to fill in, and a poster with her photo and plan-of-action and phone numbers in her room at childcare.  But, I think it's a good thing.

In 18 months, she'll get tested again.  The specialist said that because her reactions are so mild, there's no guarantees but there's a good chance that she'll be one of the 20% who grow out of the peanut one, and many kids grow out of egg intolerance.  Here's hoping.  In the meantime, no peanuts, and no chocolate mousse, pavlova, fettucine carbonara....

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Genevieve came home from childcare Monday night with a bit of a cough.  Our friend calls it 'Kennel Cough'.  Anyway, nothing too much to worry about.

Fast-forward to Thursday, and Naomi got a phone call from childcare.  Vievey had a temperature, so I quickly rode home from work (via the chemist) to pick her up.  Her temp was up a little, so I tried some of the no-name paracetamol for kids that I picked up (the last two times we'd given her Panadol for Kids she'd thrown up).  She had a sleep on my lap, and woke up with a normal temp.

The cough and temperature didn't really abate so this afternoon (Sat) we thought we'd better take her to a doctor, just in case it was a chest infection - bronchiolitis most-likely.  Our regular doctor isn't open on weekends, and the Royal Children's Hospital is only 5 mins drive away, so we took her there.

After a short wait, we saw Dr Julian who did all the rudimentary checks.  He was pretty sure she didn't have an infection, but suggested an X-Ray to make sure.  A bit more waiting, then she had the X-Ray.  A bit more waiting and Dr Julian said that there was no infection, however she was a little wheezy.  He asked if we had any family history of asthma.  Naomi had very slight asthma, which only happens on the odd occasion, normally with extreme exercise.  I don't, but my sister does have it (but smokes a lot, and has for a long time).

Hosp3

Anyway, he suggested we try some asthma medication, so that was three doses of ventolin, 20 minutes apart.  So we went to a little alcove and waited for a nurse.  The nurse, Sean, put her up to an oxygen saturation monitor and gave Genevieve the ventolin.  We then waited for 20 minutes, which ended up being 34 minutes, for the second dose.  The second nurse, (Jenny?) brought in this really cool Starlight Foundation multimedia unit.  It had Nintendo, net access and a vast array of kid's programs.

The nurse asked which we preferred, Hi-5 or The Wiggles.  To my knowledge, Genevieve has never been exposed to either of these, (we're big fans of They Might Be Giants's kids stuff).  However, we also believe Hi 5 to be evil incarnate, so we chose to get wiggled.

After one whole dose of Wiggledom and half of a second (I dunno how long - time warps when theres 4 coloured skivvies in front of you), Dr Julian came back and asked how we were going.  We'd only had two of the three required doses, so he said he'd come back again after the third dose. So, more waiting, and then Jenny (?) gave her the third dose.

Shortly after, the second Wiggle-o-rama had finished (at least that had some footage of NYC so we could reminisce) so I jumped on to the keyboard and managed to find some AstroBoy.  Unfortunately, it was the New AstroBoy stuff, not the 60's one, but it was a respite nonetheless.

Also unfortunately, I found AstroBoy too late as there wasn't much of a wait for Dr Julian to come back.  He wasn't comfortable diagnosing asthma from this one, slight, wheezing incident, but he prescribed a course of asthma preventitive (just 3 more doses of an oral medicine, once daily) and also gave us a script for ventolin.  We're gonna go back and see him in six weeks.

Through it all, Genevieve was a little trooper.  She cried and got restless a few times, as she was quite tired.  But she took the ventolin quite well (some kids scream through the lot, she just started to get upset towards the end).  She's such a good kid.  So we'll see what happens over the next few weeks.

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