Numbers

Ha! I bet you thought this entry was going to be all about sports...the number of touchdowns Bountiful teams scored this weekend...the number of interceptions had by the Parrys...the number of kids wiped out by our resident linemen...alas you are wrong.

This entry is all about Isaac's numbers. He had blood drawn at the allergist last week and has asked me almost daily, "have they called about my numbers, have they called about my numbers"?

They called. I wish they hadn't. The numbers were not good this year. The numbers we are referring to are Isaac's RAST scores, which are indicators of anaphylactic allergies. All his nut numbers were the same as before or worse. Peanut is still greater than 100 (you can have an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts if your number is a positive number even as small as 1). So, still strictly avoiding peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, hazel nuts, cashews and pistachios.

The shellfish numbers were the ones Isaac was most interested in. He loves shrimp and salmon. His numbers for shrimp, salmon and lobster were between 1-2, which is good for "normal people", but not good for Icky. Dr. Broadbent agreed to do some skin testing at her office for these foods and if Isaac didn't get a hive, we would have what's called a "food challenge" at the hospital. This is where Isaac goes to the hospital and eats a small amount of these foods and we see what happens. It has to be done in the hospital because it is so dangerous for him.

A new allergy this time is chickpea (I love hummus).

Soy was a little better, but still on the "NO" list.

His egg numbers went up 450%. Joy.

Finally, we did an IGE blood test. This is an index for allergies. It's kind of like the Dow Jones index of the stock market. The lab adds all his allergy numbers together and gives you a total. A "normal" person has an IGE around 30. Isaac's is nearly 2,500. Enough said.