Doctor time for Hallie

We took Hallie to the doctors today to be tested for allergies.  She has been complaining about pretty bad stomach pain pretty much since she was old enough to talk, so we thought we would at least check into allergies and eliminate that as a problem.

Somehow, I thought it would just be a few quick pricks, and we'd be on our way, but it turned out to be more traumatic for Hallie.  They wanted to take some blood just to make sure she doesn't have celiac disease (which is being allergic to gluten).  And here I'd been assuring her there wouldn't be any "real" needles at this appointment.  Well, she made it through, crying heartily the entire time, but she didn't seem too affected -- the tears stopped as soon as the cotton ball went on her arm.

Then came the allergy testing.  I guess I just didn't know what to expect, because it wasn't just one little prick at a time for a quick second -- they had this contraption with 8 little pricks on it and they wiggled it around and pushed it into her arm for like 10 seconds.  And they had to do it on both arms!!  Plus, they gave her 3 additional pricks.  Man oh man, I have never heard Hallie scream like that before.
Afterward, Hallie told me that it felt like bears were scratching off her arms.  When I suggested that maybe it felt more like cats, she looked at me and said, "No way Mom.  Way more than cats.  Only bears would feel like that."  I'm glad Jon wasn't there -- he would have been passed out on the floor by the time we got through.

We don't have the results on the blood yet, but as far as allergies go, Hallie is slightly allergic to yeast.  So, the doctor is having us take yeast out of her diet for 4 days to see if it helps with her stomach.  He gave us a list of what to avoid, and it seems like yeast is in everything!  I'm sure we'll be just fine for the next 4 days, but it did seem daunting at first glance.