Finally, A Doctor With Sense

Earlier this week, we finally got to see the allergist for Liam's problems.  To review, see this post. So, he's been off the oral steroids for 8 weeks now.  We've switched his antacid medication from Prilosec to Pepcid on the advice of his pediatrician who didn't seem to think getting him on an antihistamine based antacid was a bad thing.  Liam has been fine on the Pepcid and we can get it over the counter so that's where we left it.

I was fairly certain that our appointment with the allergist would be a complete waste of time for us and that Liam would have to go through a scratch test before all was said and done.  I only kept the appointment on the advice of our pediatrician whom I trust implicitly.

It turns out that the allergist was also a realist.  When I laid out the whole situation for her and explained that he was doing so much better on just the Pepcid, she didn't see any need to try to fix something that wasn't broken.  I told her that my mother's intuition was saying that his issues had more to do with GERD than with an allergy.  She seemed to agree and based on his complete LACK of symptoms, she said it really wasn't necessary to put Liam through a scratch test because she was fairly sure it would come up with nothing.

She also said that if it comes down to Liam needing the steroid treatment, there are a lot of options for us - we could switch steroids, we could change frequency, we could change dosage - all things that the gastroenterologist refused to discuss with me.  She, too, seemed a little puzzled that the GI doc had never seen a kid get twitchy on steroids.

So, for the time being, we leave Liam on the Pepcid and we don't screw around with anything else.  His symptoms have resolved and there's no reason to poke or prod him further.  If his symptoms should return or get worse, of course we will return to the doctors.

Thank goodness at least one of the doctors was willing to talk to me like I was an intelligent human being and take what I was saying at face value.  Liam has been through enough.