Yaaayyyyy Ella has her skin-prick test this week!  It'll be so good to be one step closer to knowing whether it was the dairy or the fish oil in the formula that caused her anaphylaxis.  And of course, I'm soooooooo hoping that she's grown out of it.  But realistically, even after that very encouraging RAST result, she came up in hives tonight after her daddy blew a raspberry on her chest (he'd eaten butter on his corn cob tonight, but still, sure couldn't see any left on his face!) - this isn't the first time it's happened, so I'll have to be realistic and hope for the best, prepare for the worst.  Next step will be the food challenges.  But I'm nervous even about the skin prick, I have to admit.  I was OK until the nurse said "we'll get Medlab to come to the hospital to do it there, so we've got the resucitation equipment there if needed"!  I know, tiny, tiny chance it'll be needed, but eeep having watched my baby come that close to death once already I guess I'm a little tender about the thought of it all.   I'm even having little 'flashbacks' to when I sat speechless on her bed in the ED, watching her struggling for breath and it seemed the world had stopped spinning and no-one could help her, and I just kept thinking 'oh my god - this was my last day with her, this is the last I'll see of my daughter'.  (They only started once the test was booked so I'm not worried about them BTW). 

So wish us luck and if you're the praying type, please add us to your prayers on Thursday.  And those of you who've had them already - any tips for helping Ella with it?  So far I've worked on arranging for her daddy to be there so if I'm too tense he can take over - I don't want to stress her out!  That's what we had to do when she had her yukky MCU, poor kid! 

BEST OF LUCK ELLA and mummy. Aww big hugs mum, Praying it all goes well for Ella and hope for better answers on her allergies etc

Sending all mine and Alize's goodluck vibes to you!!

Will be thinking of you on Thursday Andie.

...5 times a day, Liz?!?  Wow what school are you at?!  Anyway, thanks heaps guys, it makes a difference.  Yep, Jono will be there - I handle her blood tests and imms and everything else by myself, but not tests like these.  I got some handy hints from those who've been there too - cheers for that - Got the bubbles packed and will have my pin-down manouver at the ready!

It's over!  It's OVER!!!  And thanks for all your kind thoughts and support

Well - she's surely allergic to milk even though it didn't show up in her RAST - wow does that go to show that the RAST really does have such a huge margin of error.  Fish, which was the other suspect for causing the reaction that started it all  was OK.  Egg white and yolk, and nuts were fine.  (WHEW!!!).  I don't know if I was hoping for it to be milk or fish - fish sure is easier to avoid, but milk means there's more chance she might grow out of it.  Anyway, it doesn't matter what I'd been hoping for because things are the way they are regardless, so milk allergy it is, and thank God there don't seem to be others.  Time for the EpiPen once Ella's heavy enough and more 'education' for her family. 

... and hey, thanks everyone whose been there before for not saying "it's nothing to worry about" even thought that might've been true! - now that it's over, I can see that it wasn't!  But leading up to it I sure was anxious.  First thing I saw in the room was the anaphylaxis kit - which they didn't even need to touch today

Yep, sure is. 

Aw young Maya, you're missing out on all the really yummy stuff!!!

Aimee we had nursing and lab staff only - they didn't talk about trying her on anything, and I'll need to wait to see the Paed about that and about meds.  I also took a photo of the results on Ella's arm to show MIL - she just won't discuss it with me it seems so I'll let her see the pic tonight, maybe that'll help.  She didn't even reply to any of my texts on the day about the results even though I knew she had her phone on her 'cause she'd been texting me about other things.