Jude and Levi had appointments to be tested for allergies this morning at 7:30 a.m. in downtown Minneapolis. We ended up not going ahead with the testing on Jude since he was cowering in the corner, scared of getting scraped. Levi, on the other hand, was naïve enough not to know what was coming so we went ahead with the testing on him. Levi has a very minor cat allergy (1 out of 4) and the doctor did not recommend that Levi be medicated or that we get rid of our cats (to my disappointment). Also, Levi possibly has a minor allergy to some outdoor mold, but again, not a concern. For Jude, we’ve opted to do a blood test to check for any extreme allergies. I arranged with Children’s Hospital that his blood will be drawn while he is sleeping during his surgery this Thursday to remove his port. Although I arranged this, I do not expect that it will happen as planned. I will have to advocate for Jude this Thursday to not only have him put to sleep with gas (instead of IV medicine), but I’ll also have to get the anesthesiologist to agree to do the blood draw after he is sleeping.   Since Jude is allergic to pokes while he is awake, I will have to convince them of my well-thought-out plan to avoid a serious reaction.