Do you want a breaded shrimpy-chicken ball dipped in peanut sauce and chocolate with a big glass of milk?

Yesterday Squeaky and I were allergy tested.

For me, this was part of the on-going investigation into why I'm dizzy all the time. I've been noticing that I feel like I am coming down with a cold all the time for the past few years. It seems worse in certain situations, like walking past the cleaning products in a store. My eyes tear up, I feel like my face is on fire and I simply can't get out of there fast enough. For a long time I didn't even know what was going on exactly, I just knew that I dreaded grocery shopping because it made me feel so horrible. I remember complaining about it to Dennis. Well, now I know why!

I'm a rhino. I mean, I have rhinitis. For some stimulating reading, you can google rhinitis. The allergy test wasn't as impressive as I had hoped- my main allergy is to dust mites. And one weed. But rhinitis can be caused by environmental irritants (pollution, chemicals, smoke, perfumes etc.) and sensitivity to different foods (like spicy food) as well as allergies.

Squeaky, on the other hand, is a walking allergy bomb. Years ago when I became more aware that allergies existed I thought that worrying about allergies was kind of silly and probably not a big deal. All of that changes when it is your own kid!

Poor little Squeak! Her little back lit up like a Christmas tree with bright red welts and spots all over it during the scratch test. I counted 24. The most interesting ones are to chicken, chocolate, fish, eggs, milk, wheat and peanuts. Three of her favorite things in the whole world are chicken, chocolate and milk. The reason we took her to the clinic in the first place was because we suspected the peanut allergy from a scary experience when I had her try a Reese's peanut butter cup.

The doctor told us that we could keep giving her all those foods (except for peanuts) as long as we watched her closely. Apparently allergy tests can give false positives, and she also may outgrow these things. But a peanut allergy is never outgrown, and it can be fatal. So now I am going to go do some research on this whole new world that I previously knew nothing about: dealing with kids with allergies and how to administer an epi-pen.