Little Brave One

So we had our allergy appointment today to skin test the boys for the flu vaccines. J caught a cold at Disney so they wouldn't test him since he was wheezing. But W got the green light. The poor kid had to endure 15 needle pricks in about a 2-hour period. With lots of breaks in between. They had to skin test him on one forearm for egg white, whole egg, H1N1, and the seasonal flu vaccine. He is still very allergic to eggs, showed no reaction to H1N1 vaccine and a reaction to the seasonal flu vaccine (at least that batch). The kicker is that they are just testing him to one batch of the vaccine and every one is different. So he can have a reaction to this batch, but not to another. So then the doctor had to do an intradermal skin test (under the skin like the TB test) four times on the other forearm for the same items. Then the doc could administer the full 1st dose of H1N1 since W had no reaction to that batch. But for the seasonal flu shot he had to administer a small doseage every 15 minutes. So W would get a shot...calm down...we would read a book until the timer ticked 15 minutes later...the doctor would return, check his arm, do another shot...and repeat. I think he is going to be forever terrified of needles! He was very brave though. Especially on the 3rd to last shot where he started bleeding a little. And then the second to last shot where he started gushing blood and got a hematoma on his arm. The whole process took 3 1/2 hours. We will have to delay our leaving one day to get J done before we leave. And since this is the first time they have had the seasonal flu shot, they will have to have another dose of that AND the H1N1 in 30 days. And with that, a whole other round of skin testing...