I Don't Know What to Expect

This is not the post I had planned for today. I just saw this article on Janeen's website. It also came across my Google alerts. It is a tragic story of a man who lost his life from a bite of a cookie. All it took was one bite and 90 seconds. Unfortunately he chose not to carry an Epi pen and the life saving measures they did take were not successful. You can read the story here.

This story has got me thinking about my own kids. My son R. has a severe peanut allergy (98.9 IgE on his last RAST,) but I have no idea what kind of reaction to expect if he were to be exposed to a peanut. He has only every had one reaction almost 3 years ago. He ate some of my peanut butter toast and broke out in hives. He had eaten peanut butter before did not have a reaction. We do not have a history of allergies ,so I was surprised he reacted. I knew immediately what was happening so I gave him Benadryl and took him to the pediatrician. He was fine and we have been carrying an Epi pen ever since. I guess we are doing a good job avoiding peanuts ever since. But, I have this huge fear of the unknown. What would happen if he were to eat a peanut? Is he one of those kids who will drop right away? Or will his reaction be gradual? Not knowing what will happen really has me concerned. I do not think he is contact sensitive, but I can not think of a time he has even been in a room with a pure peanut product.

Does anyone else have this same concern?

I also wish I had insisted that he have a RAST test done as part of the initial diagnosis. I did not know anything about food allergies then, and figured that the scratch test was enough. I would love to know what his initial IgE levels were. Have they increased over the last few years? I suppose one piece of advice I would offer moms who are just starting on this journey is to get a RAST done. It may not mean much right away, you need to avoid the allergic food regardless. However, it can be useful to track the progress of the allergy from year to year.

Time for New Epi Pens

I hope I am not jinxing myself by putting this in writing, but we have gone 1 year without an allergic reaction in our house! Last March we had a scary episode with my then 1 1/2 year old. We believe Collin ate a cracker or bread crumb off the floor when he started coughing, sneezing and fussing. He was not in distress, so I gave him Benadryl and took him straight to pediatrician’s office. He was doing pretty well, but it was hard to get any more oral medication in him because he was so fussy.

Shortly after taking steroids, they checked his vitals again. By this time he had calmed down and started to fall asleep in my lap, so I thought we were in the clear. When they checked his breathing it was compromised so the pediatrician said we would need to move to the trauma room, administer an Epi pen and call 911. Now, I have always loved my pediatrician, I am so grateful for her calm and efficient manner. She did give me the option to administer the Epi pen, but I preferred to watch her give it. Having seen the injection given by a doctor, I feel better if I ever have to do it myself.

Epinephrine is an amazing drug. Collin was mad, but otherwise fine by the time the EMT arrived. We went to the hospital where we were observed for 2 hours and released. It was difficult to keep Collin occupied, as he wanted to explore everything. Since we were there during meal time they did offer to bring some food for him to eat. I was a little surprised that they were not really prepared to deal with all his restrictions. We made do with applesauce and milk.

When all was said and done, he was and is fine. An experience like this brings on a multitude of feelings – guilt, anger, worry stress and exhaustion when is it all over. I was also left feeling very unsure on how to determine if Collin needed and Epi pen. His symptoms were not violent – no hives, no vomiting, he did not gasp for air like I had imagined he would. If I had not gone to the doctor I would have thought he was just sleepy from all the crying. I really began to doubt myself and my ability to asses his allergic reaction. I have done a lot of research into what anaphylaxis looks like, which I will write about later. I just know that I have to be vigilant at all times. Navigating the food allergy world is rather daunting. Hopefully others will contribute to these stories and you will find that what I have to contribute is useful. For now I am going to re order some new Epi pens.