Allergy Testing is Pointless

I haven't been on recently because I'm just frustrated with this disease and the lack of answers. Short update... after the upper endoscope in August that was not as expected (we expected it to be 100% clear and it was far from that) we were told by the GI to go see the Allergist and get his diet figured out. Well, we talked, and decided to do more skin prick testing to see if there are things in his current diet that could be causing the bump in the road. Well, out of 32 foods and spices we tested, he had a positive response to all of them except four! The doctor wanted to take out quite a few things that are basic standars in our house on an already modified diet. I left the office in tears not knowing how I was going to manage this. At least he didn't remove everything that was positive as is typical or we'd have to seriously consider alternative methods of nutrition. He said he'd call the GI and get back to me because he was considering removing additional items. Well, two weeks go by and no call so I phoned the GI directly. She called me back within 30 minutes. She was shocked but didn't want to take away all foods. She wanted to call the Allergist and get back to me. Funny how later that afternoon the Allergist called and said "did you talk to the GI? Because I did too!?" Duh, yeah, because I couldn't wait for you to get back to me any longer! So anyway, we talked more about all the foods to be removed and he doesn't believe that he's truly allergic to all of these things. But with a test that is only 55% accurate for positives I wouldn't base much on it!! How can you eliminate a child's diet based on such a flaky test!!! So my husband and I talked and we've agreed to remove the wheat again (which we think was the main problem in the first place) and increase the Flovent and as well remove some additional foods based on the most recent skin prick test. He is still eating many foods he tested positive for. But we also wondered, if we remove a ton of foods, how will we know which ones were truly the problem, especially, as mentioned before, it's such a non-accurate test!

The other reason I haven't posted much lately is because I really don't want to attract more energy to this stupid frustrating condition! I have been working with my son to stay positive, to focus on the knowledge that his body is strong and healthy and is getting better and better every single day. Honestly, if the doctor hadn't showed me the pictures of his esophagus, I'd argue that he is perfectly healthy! There is scientific support that the mind and body are very much connected. If he's hearing us talk about his dis-ease all the time, he's going to internalize it. If he's thinking about how strong and healthy he is and how he's getting better every day, he WILL get better every day. It was only after I started sharing our story and hearing about all the other cases out there that we did a backslide into the EE hole. So we're distancing ourselves a bit from the whole idea of having some sort of dis-ease and instead focusing on being healthy! I hope you can all understand that.

Thanks!
Tracy