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Monday, February 18, 2008

We're Eggstatic!

I blogged earlier this week about our recent Eggsellent News and that we were expecting an upcoming egg challenge for our daughter. Well today was the big day. This morning I made French toast for Madeleine for the first time. We put the French toast in a container and headed to see the allergist.

The thought of sitting with a three year old for over three hours while she ate French toast in tiny increments was something less than optimal, but given the circumstances I was excited.

Our allergist started her with one small bite of French toast. We waited fifteen minutes with bated breath ... no hives, no redness ... we were in the clear! Or so we thought ... the second bite was double the first. After 5 minutes my heart sank. There on Madeleine's cheek was a single, large wheal. I was very disappointed.

I was afraid that the challenge would be stopped at that point, but after fifteen minutes where no additional hives appeared our allergist decided to keep the challenge going.

The portion of French toast was doubled again ... up to a quarter slice. We were ecstatic to see the first hive disappear and no additional hives surfaced, save one small dot on her hand.

Things had really turned and it was now safe to be very optimistic!

After waiting another hour after Madeleine ate one more half slice of French toast, we were given the all clear and in her honour Saturdays will officially be "French Toast Day" in our home!

The next steps are to ensure that she eats egg at least three times a week and to monitor any reactions. The addition of egg to her regular breakfast routine will help her develop tolerance.

This is huge news. Though I knew I would be happy, I have to admit that I was surprised by the wave of relief I felt once we were fairly certain that her anaphylaxis to egg had finally dissipated. I think that after two years you just learn to live with the allergy. In some strange sort of way I actually miss it a little because it was part of the fabric of who our daughter was. That being said, we will happily kiss the egg allergy goodbye!

Let's hope to have a similar result in two years when we revisit the peanut allergy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

congrats on your daughter passing her challenge! what were her RAST numbers for egg and did they come down before you challenged her? lastly, will you ever consider challenge peanut? interesting that they kept with the challenge despite the hive... my daughter only gets small hives with peanuts and i wonder how she would do in a challenge..they will not challenge her until 5 or lower and she is a 7.

Anonymous said...

ps sorry missed your earlier post on the SPT....

Gab said...

OMG - congratulations!!! That's fabulous news. Hooray!

Mikaela said...

Even though I've never personally met you, I am so excited for you, your daughter and family! I completely understand your relief. Between eggs and peanuts, for me, the egg allergy has been harder to deal with than the peanut and we hope that our son will be in the clear this summer after his next visit. Also, after what you talked about, I am going to make some effort in finding the right allergist for our son. I never realized who subjective these tests can be.