allergy testing....dr. B?

[eljomom]

Really freaking out about if we should go through with allergy testing for dd. Isn't Dr. B an allergist too? Anyone know if he frowns on skin testing on pandas/pitand kids because of causing an immune response, etc.?

[Tamistwins]

Really freaking out about if we should go through with allergy testing for dd. Isn't Dr. B an allergist too? Anyone know if he frowns on skin testing on pandas/pitand kids because of causing an immune response, etc.?

 

Hi Dr. B does not frown on skin testing for Pandas/Pitands. He tested my son for environmental allergies. To be honest I really did not see a point to this. My son has high IGE which means there is some allergy although we don't see a correlation to what he eats. My son was allergic to most environmental things that are unavoidable. He did not feel the need to give him injections for this and he never tested for food alleges. HMMM

[kimballot]

Dr. B does the standard IGE allergy testing as most allergists would do. I do not believe there is anything magic about Dr. B's allergy testing or shots. He did both environmental and foods for my family. In our case, he did recommend allergy shots when indicated for my (non?) PANDAS daughter and myself. We both have been getting shots locally and are doing well. The shots did NOT trigger any symptoms in my daughter, and she does get some PANDAS symptoms when ill or with vaccinations.

 

DS14 (PANDAS) has been tested numerous times in his life for allergies and as a young child did test positive for IgE environmental allergies -eventually receiving several years of allergy shots. Over the past 4 years he has NOT tested positive for IgE allergies on several occasions from several different doctors including Dr. B. DS does not receive allergy injections - but he does get zyrtec and quercetin... and Dr. B and the ENT still classify him as having allergic rhinitis.

 

If you are asking if allergy testing triggers an exacerbation I can tell you that the first time DS was tested as a preschooler -while he also had underlying hidden tonsil infection that we did not know about and he was in exacerbation. I remember him have a very bad day at preschool after allergy testing and the doctors telling me it was unrelated to the allergy testing. Looking back - I am sure it was not unrelated, but I don't think it was any more of an upswing than I would have seen if he went to the zoo (where he was allergic to the animals) or if he rolled in fresh cut grass.

 

I think (personally) it is important to try to get allergies under control if they are part of the picture. They are just one piece of the puzzle, but an important piece since they lead to inflammation, which can trigger a breach in the blood-brain barrier and start all those lovely PANDAS symptoms. Controlling my son's allergies really helped him to recover from his first major PANDAS exacerbation 7 years ago.