Another fun filled Skin Prick Testing Morning. Wow it was busy today. I must have done about 10 of them.
Paediatric Nursing is a bit of an art. How to cajole the kids into doing something they really don't want to. I've been bitten, kicked, punched and my hair pulled. Nowadays I have this technique for keeping all limbs nicely tucked away.
Half the problem with the kids though, is their parents.
One mum today said her 2 year old was allergic to lentils. Now lentils aren't a product that you commonly found hidden in foods. It isn't like nuts or eggs or milk. If your kid eats some and has a reaction with facial swelling and rash, and you're sure it was lentils well it seems pretty clear to me. Don't give her lentils. It's hardly likely she's ever going to eat them by accident at school (well maybe Jamie Olivers dinners!) or at a party. Just be careful but, she wants blood tests and adrenaline. So we did them.
Then we had the opposite, a mum of a three year old that had a reaction to peanuts. Nuts are commonly hidden in lots of foods. Some kids are so allergic that even if a school friend is eating a peanut butter sandwich in the same room they have a anaphylactic reaction. The doctor wanted to do skin prick tests on him. She agreed but only if the child agreed.... So she hgave him the choice. Come on he was 3. He said no.
"Are you sure Stanley?" She unhelpfully asked.
But his answer was no. A rather Loud "NO I want sweets".
So, the doctor said until we were medically sure he was allergic we couldn't give adrenaline injections. The best we could do was to give advice to avoid all nuts.
I don't get it, she came from miles away not to find out anything?
Skin Prick testing sounds challenging doesn't it? Pricking the skin with a needle?... Well actually that's not what happens. We put a tiny drop of the solution (nuts, egg etc) on the skin and use something rather like a sharp pencil to make an indent in the skin. It isn't a needle and doesn't hurt. It's quick and painless.
So another day at T'mill over with.
I'm home making fresh bread in my bread maker and enjoying the sun here.... albeit a bit cold. Spring is in the air.
Posts
