The Results are In....

Can you tell we aren't jumping up and down with excitement over here?!  Before I get to that, let me first tell you the good results.  We went back on Monday to Emma's Pediatrician to follow up about her ears.  They looked PERFECT.  Yea!  So for now, no ENT. 
Now for that not so fun stuff....
I decided to take Emma back to the allergist at 6 months instead of a year.  I wanted to know what her levels were doing, and I also had some questions.  When we first found out about her peanut allergy, we were told to strictly avoid all peanuts plus anything that may contain peanuts, or was made in a facility with peanuts.  I have been reading about a lot of studies that talked about peanut allergies going away after being exposed to very controlled amounts of peanuts/peanut dust/peanut flour.  I was wondering if I took all of these warning foods away from her, was I also taking away her chances of out growing her allergy since she had no chance of having an exposure.  So off we went this morning to get the results and ask my questions.  I was already prepared to hear that she hadn't out grown her peanut allergy yet, but I wasn't prepared to hear that her levels had gone up.  Her levels have more then tripled, but as bad as that sounds, she is still on the lower end of the high risk category.  I of course started crying, but Dr. Jain assured me that this really didn't mean anything different and I can't read too much into these levels.  He said a person's level can change during the day, be affected by a cold (Emma had an Ear Infection at the time), or even if people have seasonal allergies and they are acting up at the time the test was done.  He said they really only pay attention to the blood test when a patient has levels in the 30's or 40's. 
So as disappointing as it was, it really doesn't change anything.  Emma still has just as much chance of out growing it as she did in December.  We will go back in 18 months - 1 year for another test.  I may just do the skin test next time, since the blood work has so many variables that can affect it.
I was able to ask my questions, and the recommendation is still to avoid food that have the warning.  Dr. Jain is still not 100% comfortable with these studies that are making news right now, and he needs to see a lot more data.  He said that he is comfortable with the Diary tests, but not so much the peanut ones.  The articles that I have been reading have been promoting the study, so they don't paint a clear picture.  I guess there are seeing some pretty sever side effects in some patients.  In the study where patients are eating the food that they are allergic to, some are developing Esophageal diseases. 
So for now, we will continue doing what we have been doing, and keep a close eye on studies.  Obvious more research is needed to hopefully find a safe cure for food allergies, but also develop some better tests that can give a more clear picture.  There is a walk benefiting food allergies in December at Tempe Town Lake.  We are already working on getting t-shirts made and forming "Team Emma".  As it gets closer, I will be sending out emails and posting on here and Facebook.  We would love to have you all be apart of our team!