Milk Challenge Drama

Alexander has dairy and egg allergies.  He has had these allergies pretty much since birth.  Because of these allergies, he visits the allergist twice a year for skin testing.  When I took him in April, his skin test for milk was negative and the test for egg was miniscule.  This was awesome!  It meant that he was ready for a milk challenge, which means that he would go to the allergist's office and drink milk in a controlled environment, so that they were there to watch for an allergic reaction.  We were so excited for him.  I scheduled the challenge for July 1st.  We spent the past two weeks gearing him up for the challenge because our biggest fear was that he would get to the allergist's office and tell them that he wouldn't drink the milk.  He was ready.

Then we took a trip to Pennsylvania.  Who knew that a trip to Pennsylvania would wreak havoc on our milk challenge plans.  During the trip, all three of us got sick.  My mom was sick when we got there, but she said it was a sinus infection, so I didn't think that we could catch it from her.  I was wrong.  Julia and I came down with the cold and cough on Tuesday.  Then Alexander came down with it on Thursday. 

We came home on Saturday andAlexander spent all day on Sunday telling us all of the foods that he would be able to eat if he passed his challenge.  His list included M & Ms, macaroni and cheese, an ice cream cone, frozen yogurt, and real butter.  I worried about how the cold would affect the milk challenge, but decided to go to the doctor's office to see if they would let him do the challenge.  We got to the office and the Physician's Assistant listened to his lungs.  As soon as she listened to him, she delivered the bad news that we wouldn't be having a milk challenge today.  Alexander was so disappointed.  He cried the whole way home.

He is really being a trooper about it though.  He knows that in two weeks, we get to try again, so tonight he said to us, "If I pass my milk challenge, I will be able to get milk out of a cow."  We laughed so hard because we have never actually let him try to milk a cow when we visit a farm because we don't want him to get milk on his skin.  So I hope he passes that challenge because when the opportunity to milk a cow comes around, he will be ready!