"You're allergic to what?"

The answer to this question might startle you, just a bit, if you were to ask Tristan (assuming he understood what you asked and he answered correctly!). Two Fridays ago Victor and I took him to the doctor to be allergy tested since he always seems to get a runny nose and sore throat (from drainage) whenever the weather changes or something blows in. Victor seems to be allergic to just about everything so I was sure he would be too, but I was quite surprised by the results.

Before I give you the shocking test results I'll fill you in about the test first. The pediatric allergy screen only tests for 24 "common" allergies, 16 environmental and 8 food. We had to remove Tristan's shirt and the doctor poked his back three times with three different sets of 8 variables. For ten minutes he couldn't touch his back because the liquid stuff from the test was still on his skin so Victor let him watch The Wiggles on YouTube...he has a fancy phone that you can do this on, I do not have such a phone, but I digress.

After ten minutes the nurse came in to wipe the liquid stuff off and we had to wait another ten minutes until the doctor came in to read the test. He only had two small bumps that looked like little mosquito bites, which surprised me because I figured he would have responded to more. But what surprised me even more was what the doctor said he was allergic to: bermuda grass and COCKROACHES! Yes, you read that correctly, Tristan is allergic to cockroaches.

After hearing the news, Victor and I proceeded to tell the doctor that we don't have cockroaches at our house and have never even seen one outside our house. He then told us that even though we don't see them, they are around and they are everywhere. They outlived the dinosaurs and only eat dead skin cells so they are around! We had/still have a hard time buying this but he assured us it is actually very common...I guess it is common enough to be one of only 24 things they test kids for. Weird, I know!

He is actually allergic to the cockroach poop (yuck) and since kids are lower to the ground they are more susceptible to it...but we still haven't seen any cockroaches and religiously have the exterminator come every three months, so I am confident there must be some other environmental things he must be allergic to that they didn't test for. The doctor did say he would probably benefit by being on Singulair (an allergy medicine), so we started that last week. Unfortunately since he has had RSV I can't really tell if it is making a difference yet.

I am sure time will tell about the medicine...I am still freaked out about the cockroach thing and can't help but wonder who figured out the whole allergy to cockroach poop in the first place!!

Stay tuned to find out how Parker's allergy test went...we took him last Monday and I would elaborate now but I think this post is already long enough and it might take me awhile to go through.