Allergy Testing Results

The scratch test and intradermal tests were both negative. That's good. It really is good news...but it's also puzzling. The reason we finally proceeded with the allergy testing was because Jack's congestion became so bad that it was out of control recently. His nasal turbinates are still impressively huge. They are so big that our allergist did not even believe his own eyes and memory. He looked three times during the office visit today and had the nurse practitioner look too. The swollen turbinates are a pretty good sign that a person has allergies. There are other causes too. Dr. LaRussa said that it is possible that Jack has vasomotor rhinitis. Nobody knows what causes it. It is aggravated by fumes, odors, temperature and atmospheric changes, smoke, and other irritants. This type of rhinitis occurs year round so that does really sound like Jack. This could explain why Jack has increased difficulty with congestion when he is around strong smells such as cleaning productsand strong perfumes. Regarding the dairy, Dr. LaRussa says that based on the history we provided it's pretty clear that Jack has a dairy intolerance and it would be wise to continuing avoiding obvious forms of milk like milk, yogurt, milkshakes, ice cream, and forms of uncooked milk. However, he said that Jack may be able to tolerate cheese (YIPEEE!!!) and he stated that typically things like birthday cake, pancakes and waffles have their milk proteins so denatured by cooking that dairy intolerant people can tolerant them okay. He basically advised us to proceed with caution. He acknowledged that Jack's predisposition for congestion may cause him to need to avoid more than your average dairy intolerant person. So we proceed with caution.
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