With Kayla's 3 positive skin tests in the past year, I wanted her allergist to repeat her blood test before exposing her yet again to dairy at her November appointment. When I got home yesterday from picking her up from school to a message from him asking me to call him to discuss her results, I knew it couldn't be good news. Although nothing may have been worse, it certainly didn't get better. Her last blood test in August of 2007 was done at Quest and for them the test is negative if the IEG level is <.35. At that time we had to go to Quest due to our insurance. This time, we had to go to Labcorp and they will show the number below .35. So she is still testing positive by blood at .21. Yes, this is a very small number since it is close to zero. But we don't know just how low her numbers were a year ago, so we can only guess that they were about this level as well. With her still positive blood test and her strong positive reaction via the multiple skin tests she's had since, he does not want to do a skin test in November. Instead we will wait another 6 months and retest her blood in May. So we're really taking a step backwards, but with the hopes that the extra 6 months is what she'll need. I would not want to expose her to dairy via the skin test repeatedly and hurt her chances even more of outgrowing either. But now our hope for November has been stripped away.

I'm glad to have the more specific number (all her future testing will be done at Labcorp), but I'm very bummed about the results. If I had known this a year ago, I would have never had her skin tested and would have paid for the more detailed test from Labcorp. It's now looking like she won't be outgrowing her allergy before the age of 5 at the very least.

Although nothing's really changed, it's a blow. I was not overly hopefully for a successful skin test, but there was a slimmer of hope, which is now gone. I also know the older she gets, the more she is effected mentally and emotionally by her allergy.

Even though this is not the news I had hoped for I'm going to take the time to be thankful for those in her life who have really stepped up and gone out of their way to not only keep her safe but to also make her feel safe.