Allergy Testing

Today I did the arm-full-of-pin-pricks allergy testing at the office of Dr Cromar in the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center. Dr. Cromar is a very nice guy, who happens to go to our church. He is very active in the church, and is a very good speaker.

Anyway, as one of the tests, he wanted to have my sinuses x-rayed. At least that's what he said. I think it was just an excuse to get my head in an x-ray machine to see if there was any "gray matter" up there. He was so kind as to actually walk me to the x-ray department instead of sending me off to find it on my own. Now that's good service! I wasn't worried about the results, though, because I know with the medical privacy laws he can't reveal the results to anyone without my permission!

After an initial consultation for a variety of allergy issues, Dr Cromar had the nurse, Stella Visser, poke 28 holes in my right arm and another 12 or more in the left arm, testing for food allergies. I happen to know Stella because she is the wife of Dwayne Visser, the guy who was Max's technician for many many years when he worked at the U.S.D.A. research lab here in Wenatchee. Dwayne was an excellent technician and helped Max tremendously during his career.

Oddly, ALL of the food allergy tests came up negative. I had recently determined that I am definitely allergic (or at least have an intolerence for) peanut butter, but peanuts did not come up positive... nor did anything else. The odd thing is, I cut peanut butter out of my diet about 2 months ago and it has made a huge difference. There are other "intolerences" but I have not been able to isolate them (like peanute butter). Therefore, we are inclined to believe it is the preservatives (or some other additive) that is the culprit. Unfortunately, there isn't a test for preservatives and it's a difficult to monitor anyway.

We're working on some other alternatives... so stay tuned...

Life could get even better if it works!