The long and winding road to a food challenge

I am aware it's been months since I have updated.

Sometimes, I nothing to say. Other days, I didn't know how to share, would I be able to convey the hope and the fear jumbled together. So, I said nothing. And focused on enjoying the moments.

Bringing you up to date:

We saw the allergist in December. Remember that James has always had low IgEs, despite his reactions. Nevertheless, for food, he only has three (barely) positive remaining: wheat 0.21, pistachio 0.18, and peanut 0.18. He also has four (barely) positive environmentals: Bermuda grass 0.28, Rye grass 0.28 (the grasses have always been his worst environmental), Russian thistle (aka tumbleweed) 0.24, and cockroach 0.14.

He has an oral food challenge scheduled for soy, then wheat two weeks later. He will have skin testing done at the soy challenge so we can inform ourselves before deciding on any other challenges.

We have successfully added legumes (except peanut and soy) to his diet.

I have permission to feed him raw tomato at home, but when he is not taking Allegra, so I plan to wait until after his soy challenge, when he will have stopped antihistamines.

He had three occasions of hives in six weeks. Dr Li adjusted his protocol and (knock on wood) he has not had any hives in four weeks.

In the near future:

As mentioned, we have a soy and wheat challenge scheduled. In order to proceed, he has to stop taking Allegra, have no hives, not be sick, and have a successful skin test. The skin test both needs to work (he has had one previously where nothing reacted, not even the histamine control, although he did complain about itchiness, so weird) and be negative.

All of them are somewhat of a concern, but right now I am feeling as confident as possible.

Additional wrinkles are that his first challenge will be a group challenge. I'm concerned if someone reacts, it will cause anxiety and make him feel he is reacting. A lesser concern is what to bring for snacks in a room where kids will be allergic, but I'm not sure to what. Feel free to comment with suggestions or hop on over to my FB page, where I'm also collecting ideas.