Not A Surprise

Evie is allergic to milk. This includes cow and goat's milk, both of which she had a 3+/4 reaction to (4 being the most severe). The good news is we pretty much figured she was allergic to milk already so no 'new' news.

She also had a 2+ reaction to cats and a barely 1 reaction to dogs. The doctor didn't see very concerned about these 2. She did not have a reaction to any of the other things she was tested for, and they pricked her 32 times. Maybe they would have done more tests if there had been more space but the 32 pokings covered her entire back already. It was more than enough for me since I had to hold her down!
Since she has hives she will either outgrow this much more slowly than most would or she could have this allergy for life. She could also continue to be allergic forever but have a less severe reaction over time, like being congested or sneezing lots or something like that. Her cat/dog allergy could explain why she seems to have had a cold since August. The other thing about hives is that apparently hives are common to people who have anaphylaxis so we did get prescribed an epi-pen for her. However, the doctor said it was extremely unlikely that we would ever need it because milk doesn't usually result in an anaphylactic reaction. He said he gave me the prescription for my piece of mind AND because if anyone I talked to heard she had hives and he hadn't given her an epi-pen they would think he was lax or crazy. So we have a prescription for an epi-pen for the 0.01% chance that she swells up and stops breathing.

We can try baked goods with milk because apparently those aren't always a problem, but we'll have to wait and see on that. Apparently hot dogs have milk in them, along with all the other chum in the world, but they should be ok. Otherwise no milk stuff until she is at least 2-2.5 years old.

Also, there was nothing we could have done to prevent this and it's just one of those things. Fingers crossed that she does outgrow this or becomes less sensitive as soon as possible.