Welcome Back!
This spring Jack fought allergies something terrible. He was miserable and actually missed school due to headaches, sinus infections and his boat just being sunk. Our doctor suggested seeing an allergy doctor. Good thing we did! (photo heavy!!)
This is the apparatus that is used for testing. Each prong is filled with an allergen and then the entire thing is pressed against your back. No needles… (yet.)
Once the allergen is placed on the skin, a timer is set for 15 minutes to watch the development of the areas to see what Jack’s reaction was to the allergens. (I realize that I spelled allergen wrong in the pictures and I didn’t want to go back and fix it…I apologize!) Right after the allergens were placed on his skin he looked at me and said, “These itch!!”
He immediately started to react to the allergens. This is after 2 minutes.
The doctor came in again around 5 minutes and decided to wipe off the allergens due to the reaction Jack was having. Especially in the A (grasses) and B (trees) areas. 
The C area (certain corn pollen) started to puff up, as did D (animals and cockroaches…ew) and E (molds).
He continued to welt/react!
The largest welt under B is ash trees.
The “control allergen,” how most people would show a typical reaction, is in B section, last dot in the second column or row. So you can see how allergic Jack is to certain things.
At 10 minutes the doctor came in and said, “I think we know,” and went on to wipe off the allergens, put cold compresses on his back…and paint his back with Calamine lotion. He poured it on his back!
Due to the “terrible” allergy reaction Jack had, especially to trees and grasses, the doctor suggested allergy shots would work great for Jack, but that would mean 7 “shots” in the arms to check for more specific reactions. We decided to do that right away instead of coming back another day. The shots didn’t bother Jack at all! He even watched and did not flinch once. What a trooper!!
This arm was tested for cats (allergic) dogs (allergic) feathers (allergic) and then the control allergen. I shared that we had a dog and Jack did not show symptoms. The Dr. said Jack may not react to certain breeds of dogs, so keep to that breed. He also shared that there is no research at this time that hypo-allergenic dogs are really hypo-allergenic!
This side tested for more specific molds and dust mites (allergic!) which our found everywhere in your house.
Next step, starting shots, which Jack is totally ok with. It was a rough morning, but Jack was a trooper and never once complained and we got some answers!
I’m allergic to those same things I think most people are I found out that cats and cedar are my worst. I have done shots twice. They have helped but I still need some allergy pills in spring. I would have wanted you to scratch my back.