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Today Tal and I had a date to Children's Mercy Hospital. I've never been and really only seen the commercials asking for donations. All I knew was it was one of the most well known and best children's hospitals in the country. Driving up to this place it looks like freaking disneyland. There are fountains and kid themed sculptures twirling about. If I was a kid I would totally be fine with going there. I'm an adult and want to find a reason to be admitted!

The purpose of our visit was to have a chat with the allergist. First, though, we had to find a parking spot and overcome my disorientation. I've never been so lost in my life. There's hospital hill and Rainbow Road and a few others that I can't remember,  and on no sign to I see any Mickey Mouse glove pointing to the allergy clinic. After asking about 14 people I was finally on my way up Hospital Hill which IS actually a freaking hill. Me, with my hurt back, carrying 26 pound Talan, and 15 pound diaper bag up a 3 story hill. The best part? There were elevators right outside the allergy clinic. Nice. 

So we get in the room with the Doctor. Turns out he used to be in the airforce as a pediatrician and just came to Children's Mercy 3 months ago to learn to be an allergist. It takes 2 years. By the end of the appointment I felt like we had accomplished more than when we saw Dr. Mante who has been an allergist for several years. He said that both skin tests and blood tests are equal. Skin tests are nice because they tell you immediately what you are allergic to, but blood tests give you an actual reading of how extreme your allergy is. They, however, don't test for anything that he hasn't had a reaction to.

I allowed him to do the skin test. He did 5 pricks: dogs, peanuts, eggs, histamine (control), and saline. Much easier than I expected too. Tal didn't even know he got pricked. After 15 minutes the results could be read. The skin test told us Tal is allergic to peanuts and eggs. The next step was having a blood test so we can see what his levels are. This is important because when he is tested again in a couple years we want to know if the levels are going down or staying the same. 

The doctor said that he thinks it is best to completely remove the allergen from your diet and that gives you the best chance of outgrowing it. Even though Tal has been eating things that are made with eggs, he's never had a reaction because it has never been enough eggs to cause a reaction. The problem is he is still feeding to the allergy. I do think he will grow out of the eggs, the peanuts are another story. He said just from looking at his skin test his peanut allergy was most likely not going to go away any time soon. 

So we somehow found our way to the car after 37 elevator stops....no freaking joke. Tomorrow starts the new diet. Tal can have anything except for, of course, peanuts and anything made with eggs....oh, and no flu shot since the vaccine is made in chicken embryos.