The Good News
James is still free of hives. If he continues hive-free this month, Dr. Li will have us begin to lessen his antihistamine dosage.
We have now "graduated" to every other month phone consults. My excitement is not at less contact with Dr. Li, but at the knowledge that she feels James has made enough progress to need less contact.
Dr. Li has switched from Mei Huang 4 to Mei Huang 5. James has used varying doses of Mei Huang 4 (and 3). At his highest dose, he was taking 20 pills two times a day. With Mei Huang 5, his ultimate dose will be only five pills two times a day. Currently, he is taking three because he felt nauseous with the higher dose. This has happened with his pills before and as he becomes accustomed, he is able to take more. So, while the dosage will increase slightly, few pills has meant a lower cost. We have gone from $1200 a month to $900 a month.
James had a minor reaction this week. I am not sure to what. He complained of throat itchiness and knew it was a reaction. It resolved with Benadryl.
All he had had was chicken and OJ. At first I thought perhaps his OAS now included oranges (although juices usually are pasteurized). The pollen family his other OAS foods fall under is grass and orange is commonly listed in the cross reactivity lists. However, he has since had the same juice with no problems.
So, I turn to the chicken, which was a Costco rotisserie chicken. We picked it up on the way home from a museum and not from our normal Costco. It leads me to wonder if this Costco was not careful in preparing it, leading to cross contact with nuts from their bakery department. If this is the case, it was a very minor reaction and shows a lot of improvement from his previous cross contact reactions. And I will be more careful in the future questioning the stores before buying a rotisserie chicken.
We have now "graduated" to every other month phone consults. My excitement is not at less contact with Dr. Li, but at the knowledge that she feels James has made enough progress to need less contact.
Dr. Li has switched from Mei Huang 4 to Mei Huang 5. James has used varying doses of Mei Huang 4 (and 3). At his highest dose, he was taking 20 pills two times a day. With Mei Huang 5, his ultimate dose will be only five pills two times a day. Currently, he is taking three because he felt nauseous with the higher dose. This has happened with his pills before and as he becomes accustomed, he is able to take more. So, while the dosage will increase slightly, few pills has meant a lower cost. We have gone from $1200 a month to $900 a month.
The Bad News
All he had had was chicken and OJ. At first I thought perhaps his OAS now included oranges (although juices usually are pasteurized). The pollen family his other OAS foods fall under is grass and orange is commonly listed in the cross reactivity lists. However, he has since had the same juice with no problems.
So, I turn to the chicken, which was a Costco rotisserie chicken. We picked it up on the way home from a museum and not from our normal Costco. It leads me to wonder if this Costco was not careful in preparing it, leading to cross contact with nuts from their bakery department. If this is the case, it was a very minor reaction and shows a lot of improvement from his previous cross contact reactions. And I will be more careful in the future questioning the stores before buying a rotisserie chicken.
Sorry about the minor reaction. (((HUGS))) I'm glad about the other improvements, though!
ReplyDeleteThank you Selena! Overall, we are really pleased.
DeleteThank you for a very informative articles.
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