Milk allergy??

Having an allergy to milk is very common among kids with TAR.  So far we have assumed that Callie has the milk allergy because in the hospital she had some bleeding when the doctors tried her on regular formula.  She was switched to a special formula called Neocate when she was about 10 days old and since that time has done great on it.  

Since Callie is now one we can start taking her off baby formula and we wanted to get her tested for the milk allergy.  So today we had her blood drawn.  We went to the lab at Cook Children's Hosptial and had quite the day.  They needed to draw 10cc of blood, which is quite a bit of blood.  When we go to the Hematology clinic to get platelet counts they only draw 1cc or less of blood and they just prick her heel.  Since we needed so much blood today they needed to draw it out of Callie's arm.  Callie did not appreciate this at all!  It was very hard for the technician to even find a vein in Callie's little arm and on her first try was not able to draw any blood.  So a second technician came in to see if she could find a vein in the other arm.  During all this poor Callie was screaming and crying very loudly and did not want to be there!  We asked if they could draw the blood from her foot/leg which is where she has had IV's and blood drawn from before.  The technicians at the lab can only draw from the arm so we had to have a special nurse from somewhere else in the hospital come to do it.

We were in the waiting room for what seemed like forever, but Callie was having a blast playing with toys and the other kids that were there.  The nurse came and once we got back into the blood draw room it was over and done with in about five minutes!  Callie still wasn't happy, but at least she was still and we got all the blood we needed.  After today I have such a respect for the people that draw blood, do IVs, etc. on little kids.  It has got to be one of the saddest jobs since the kids are always crying and screaming.  Not to mention tough since they are working with such small limbs and veins!

Now all we have to do is wait for the test results which I think will take about a week or so.  Hopefully they come back with no Milk or Soy allergy.  That would definitely make things a lot easier.  I would be so sad if Callie could never enjoy cheese :)