Dr Visit

I had to take Tanner to the Dr yesterday for yet another sinus infection. I knew she'd get one soon-first of all, it's been two months since the last one and two-it's that time of year. We had started her back on her allergy medicine three weeks ago as preventative but yea, that didn't help so much.

So off to Dr. Froman we went.

The first thing Dr. Froman said when she came in was "Same 'ole stuff, huh Tanner?" Tanner said yes and then Dr. Froman looked through her chart and asked when the last time we did an allergy panel on her. Since it's been five or six years since she's had the allergy testing, she thought we may want to do that again here in a month or so and see exactly what she's allergic too and make sure we've got her on the right meds. In the meantime, she's taking yet another Zpack along with her Clariton, Singulair and her nose spray. If history repeats itself, she'll be back to herself in no time.

While we were there I asked Dr. Froman about Tanner's incessant itching the last couple of weeks. The kid scratches at her arms, legs and everywhere all the time. To the point that the top of her feet have bled because she's scratched so much!

We went to some friends house a couple of Sundays ago and they have several inside cats, dogs and a bird. Though they were out of the house while we were there, you could still tell that they were inside animals. We really thought that the itching was just an allergic reaction to the animals. We've been giving her Benedryl and Hydrocortisone and thinking it would go away.

It hasn't.

Dr. Froman looked at her really close and sure enough she's got a faint rash all over her body. That's the itching! We haven't changed any soaps or detergents and Dr. Froman said if it were a reaction to the animals, removing Tanner from that situation would have stopped the itching. She thinks it's a food allergy causing the rash and the itching. They can do a blood panel test to figure out which food allergy it is, but we have to narrow it down a little more first. She said she wants us to start really watching and keeping track of everything Tanner eats. I couldn't think of anything right off the top of my head that she's eaten any different, until we were about to walk out of the exam room door. Then it hit me.

Peanut Butter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My child has never been a huge PB&J fan. Until now.

Three weeks ago when school started, she decided she wasn't going to eat lunch at school (her lunch period is the biggest and they have a hard time getting all the kids fed in the 30 minutes they have). I would send her PB&J sandwiches at least twice and sometimes three days a week. When she's at Mike's on Thursday nights, she makes a PB&J sandwich for lunch-that means she's eating three to four times a week. Add to that the peanut butter crackers that she likes to eat sometimes as an after school snack.

She has not had any PB&J this week. The rash is lighter and she's not scratching as much. Dr. Froman wants us to avoid peanut butter for a little while longer and see if that clears it up. If it does, we'll reintroduce the peanut butter and see what happens. If it doesn't, we'll back up and punt. Either way we will probably draw some blood and they will do some allergy testing that way to see what it comes up with.

Dr. Froman said just because she's never had a problem with the peanut butter before (though she's never eaten as often as she does now) doesn't mean she can't develop an allergy. She also said that it could be some other ingredient in the peanut butter, not necessarily the peanuts.

Tanner is NOT happy about missing out on her PB&J sandwiches! And neither am I, hello, it's a cheap and easy lunch! We'll see though what happens when we remove it from her diet and go from there.

The other thing we talked to Dr. Froman about is the headaches that Tanner has been having. She will usually complain of a headache when she gets home from school or in the evenings. It was actually Tanner who brought this up and she was so big about it. It was cute. I figured it was just headaches, no big deal. Never even thought about what Dr. Froman said-eye strain! She said since the headaches aren't something she's waking up with and they are in the later part of the day, she thinks it's eye strain. She recommended we have her eyes checked again even though we did that in Feb. She said through puberty your eyes can really change-sometimes two or three times in a year. Who knew???? NOT ME!!

So I've got T an appointment for next Friday morning to get that checked out and taken care of.

It was a very insightful visit with Dr. Froman, as you can tell. I'm glad that we went and got a lot of questions answered. I love Dr. Froman and am so very thankful that we found her years ago when we moved here-she is the best pediatrician! And I'm thankful that Tanner feels comfortable enough with her to speak up and tell her what's bothering her or ask questions.

So that's where we're at. We're on a Zpak, allergy medication and no peanut butter.

I'll keep ya posted on how it turns out!