Thursday, February 26, 2009

Blood Test

We went in for the blood test yesterday. I had to try a new lab because our insurance no longer covered the one we had been using. No big loss, they weren't that great.

Things went well. Max started crying when I told him where we were going so I did what any good Mom would do. I bribed him. I told him if he was brave we could go to Target afterwards and buy him something new. And we went over ways to be brave and stay calm. Be still, take big deep breaths. The front desk people at the lab were actually friendly and had a sense of humor! And the lab tech, though initially had a hard time finding a vein, distracted Max enough while it was going on that he stopped crying and talked to her. All and all easy in easy out. Even Owen sat patiently with his back against the wall quietly watching as he always does.

We then went to Target. As we were walking up to the store Max realized he was still holding his Clifford (you know, the big red dog) and asked that I take it back to the car. I got them on the sidewalk and told Max to hold onto Owen while I ran back to the car (it wasn't far away). As I turned back to look at them. I saw Max had pulled Owen way over to one side away from the street and protectively had his arms wrapped around him. Owen in turn had his arms wrapped around Max's waist. Sometimes the amount of love they have for each other brings me to tears.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, I have a 16 month old that is allergic to milk and peanuts (told to stay away from all nuts). I also have two other children that are allergy free. I am having a hard time moving our family to a dairy/peanut free life style as we are all very picky eaters. I would love to know of some good support groups. I was also interested in the testing you had done. Is the scratch test the only testing you have had done? The different testing options confuss me. On my daughters Rast test she tested at a level 4 for both milk and peanuts. From our experience so far she gets hives if she eats peanuts but does not have any reaction to smelling it or touching it(I spread it on her arm to see if anything would happen). However, with dairy she has eczema constantly and if she even touches milk she breaks out in hives. I don't understand how the test can say they are equally bad. Do you do the scratch test to measure more accurately how sever the allergy is? Thanks for the blog I love hearing about others in my struggles and am hoping to learn more about what life may be like in the future and ways to handle it all.

Kelly said...

I had a very similar situation recently when we had our blood tests. I know what you mean about coming away feeling down. I am still hopeful, however, that someday we will find a cure.

TxMom said...

I bribe too! With our most recent scratch test experience, I brought a whole bag of safe chocolates for Ainsley to eat during the procedure (she still cried, but I think the treat helped distract her some, esp. during the waiting time). For the blood test, I promised her more candy if she tried to be brave, which worked pretty well.

Debbie said...

Just a thought. .. check out www.naet.com Give it some good investigation. It really works. Between three boys we've had milk, egg, nut, sugar, animal fats, etc. etc. all as allergies
All of which have been treated with this technique and are no longer allergic. They eat all foods with no symptoms!
Believe me, this method is worth checking out.
I left our doctors office after each visit feeling elated and overjoyed that I had found our solution. Its the best thing I've ever done for our family.

ZM said...

How did the bloodwork come out? I'm on the edge of my seat, hoping that the dairy came back low, low, low....

Sounds like your new lab is really decent. I'm impressed that the tech took the time to talk Max through the procedure - hooray for labs where they realize that there's a person attached to the vein!