Allergies

Ashlee has has sinus infections and strep throat 4 times in the last year and two other times she had sinus infections and pharyngitis.  In the last year she has been sick and needed antibiotics 6 times.  After her 5th time of being sick in 7 months I decided it was time to take her to the ear, nose and throat doctor to find out what's going on.

The ENT saw her every 7-10 days for about 2 months, looked in her sinuses several times with a camera, did a CT Scan on her sinuses and a few cultures.  He came to the conclusion that her tonsils were fine, but the problem was in her sinuses.  Repeat sinus infections turned into a fungus.

We spent a month on edge wondering if she was going to have to have surgery.  Towards the end of October she was seen on a Monday, by Thursday they had received some of  her cultures back and asked us to come in the next day because surgery would probably be the following week.  Thankfully when she was seen the next day, she had made improvements from when the doctor last saw her on Monday; so the doctor decided to double her medications and recheck her in another week.  The plan was to try to avoid surgery, or at least try to get her closer to a school break, so she could have surgery without having to miss so much school. If surgery was needed she was going to miss about 2 weeks of school.

The doctor came to the conclusion that allergies were causing sinus infections, sinus infections were causing strep throat and the sinus infections were turning into fungus in her sinuses.  In Decemeber when allergies tend to be lower, she was allergy tested for 86 different allergies and had several postitives. Ashlee is allergic to grass, weeds, pollen, mold and dust.  All things that are in the environment and especially bad in this valley that we live in.  The allergist and ENT both recommended that Ashlee begin allergy shots.

 Every week for a year Ashlee will get an allergy shot.  After the first year, the hope is that she can go to having shots every other week and she will continue to have shots for the next 4-5 years.  Hopefully these shots work and she can be healthy again.  The doctor said that Ashlee has lived with allergies for so long, that she doesn't even realize anymore how they affect her, her activity level, sleep, etc.  She has just accepted the way she feels as being normal, and doesn't really know anything else.

This is what her back looked like when they did the allergy testing.  Her left shoulder area that is really red, started to turn purple as the test went on.  Grass is her highest allergy.  She was in tears during the test.  They poked her 86 times with this needle like tool.  John was allergy tested several years ago and the doctor he went to used a different method.  I think Ashlee's doctor is "old school" and used a different technique on her.