Food Challenge Bummer

For the past two years Esther has been a patient at the Allergy clinic here at CHW.  Allergy skin tests showed that she was allergic to tree nuts (that would be every nut except peanuts [which are technically legumes]) among other things.  However when we did blood work to confirm the skin tests, there was nothing there.  The way it's supposed to work is if someone is allergic to something, there should be antibodies for that substance in the blood work.  Esther's blood work came back clear for all tree nuts, but the skin tests definitely showed a reaction.
So we scheduled a food challenge at the clinic.  Since many of the tree nuts have cross-over reactivity with almonds, we decided to do the challenge to almonds.  
In the ideal situation (meaning when the person is not in fact allergic to the food being challenged) the food challenge would go as follows.  A tiny bit of the substance (in this case almond butter) would be spread on the lips like chapstick.  Then you wait 20 mins to see if there's a reaction.  If there is no reaction, then the person gets to eat a teaspoon full of almond butter.  Again you wait to see if there's a reaction.  This continues as you gradually increase the amount of food each time and wait for a reaction between each taste until you work your way up to a handful of nuts.  Then if there's no reaction there, you go home and have a handful of nuts every day for two weeks.  If there's still no reaction then the food challenge is considered a success and you are considered to not have that food allergy.
So this morning we went to the clinic prepared for a 4 hour ordeal, hoping she would pass each stage of the food challenge. We spread a little bit of almond butter on her lips and then waited.  Within a couple of minutes Esther had developed a rash on her face.  Within a few more minutes it had spread down her neck and onto her tummy and back.  She didn't pass the first level of the food challenge!  
Needless to say I'm a little bummed.  I really love eating tree nuts, but I don't keep them in the house because of Esther's allergy.  I guess we'll wait another year and try again.  Thankfully her rash went away with a dose of Zyrtec and it wasn't an anaphylaxis reaction.  Since she had reacted we had to wait an hour in the clinic to make sure the rash was completely gone and that it didn't develop into anything more serious.  
Oh well!  Esther was a dear about the whole ordeal and she was extremely cooperative and let the nurse check her out all over every 15 mins.  I got her (and myself) 49 cent cones as our reward.  :)

Family Update

I just wanted to share a couple pictures that describe our life lately.

Mike has been having sympathy cravings (that's a pickle with ice cream).