About a week ago, Captain Jelly Belly broke out in hives on his face and they’re still hanging around in the form of a really itchy rash. It looks like he might have a new allergy but we’re handling it much more calmly this time around, since we’ve been through it all before and we know the drill of a) diet limitation, b) skin treatments, and c) asthma prevention that work together to keep him functioning like a relatively normal human being.

I was talking about his new hives with my friend RheostaticsFan on Tuesday (when she came over to graciously give us free babysitting, due to a tap dancing/ultimate frisbee conflict). She has a lot of food and environmental allergies too, and we were both saying how little faith we have these days in allergists and allergy testing. Back in September when the Captain was sick all the time, we thought all we needed to do was make it through to his allergy testing appointment, and they’d do the testing and we’d have all the answers we needed — a list of what to avoid, a list of what was safe, advice on how to keep it all under control. But our appointment really only led to more questions, when he tested negative for a lot of things that he seems to be sensitive to, and when we didn’t really get a lot of clear answers on how to handle his proven allergies due to the rushed nature of the appointment.

Overall now I just see allergy testing as a kind of guide or helper, but in no way it is a definitive answer. We know a lot more about allergies to food and environment now than most doctors, it seems, and we know much more about what does and doesn’t make the Captain sick than any doctor has ever been able to tell us. It almost doesn’t even seem worth it to take him in for his annual checkup, let alone rush him in for a new test based on this new rash, as we can figure things out better on our own through trial and error.

On a related note, I find that one thing that having kids has taught me is that doctors in general are just educated folks making educated guesses. In no way do I recommend not going to your doctor or not taking their advice. But I’ve learned that doctors don’t always agree, and in those cases, you have to sometimes do what your gut tells you is best for your sick child. And almost always, as a parent, you know better than any doctor whether or not your kid is sick or feeling different than usual — your own instincts are the most important. I really love our new doctor and I respect her and I would take her advice on what to do with my kids and myself in a heartbeat. But I guess I’m saying I don’t blindly expect doctors to just know all the answers…it’s up to me to take as much interest, if not more, in my own health and that of my kids. And when I do get some answers from a medical professional, it’s up to me to think about those ideas and make sure I feel comfortable with them, before accepting them as true.