"My Allergies Aren't That Severe...."

     I've had so many starts to my next post in my head and haven't put them on the screen yet, but this morning, I knew I had to get to work. You see, this morning I read about death number four just this month due to food allergies. These stories are far too common and they break my heart.  They also reaffirm that we are doing the absolute right thing by taking this chance on going to Utah for OIT.

     Just in sharing our personal story I have heard, on multiple occasions, "I applaud what you are doing. Thankfully my child's food allergies aren't that severe."  That statement is like nails on a chalkboard to me.  If your child has reacted to a food with hives, swelling...MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EPINEPHRINE.  It IS that serious. It IS life-threatening.  The first reaction is usually a warning and subsequent reactions will only get more severe.  The kids who "only get hives" and don't have epinephrine on them are the ones that we hear about in the news who have died.  I am not exaggerating, I am not trying to scare you, I am simply stating that not taking food allergies seriously could have deadly consequences.
     I never wanted to be the crazy allergy parent and I was concerned about that image when we had to begin restricting more and more foods due to reactions. Guess what? I just don't care what you think of me now. My kid will not die because of my inattention. I will do anything in my power to give him the tools he needs to function safely.  I'm not brave for taking him away from his life for 6 months for desensitization.  I'm not selfless. I'm not any of the heroic things people are saying. I'm just a mom.  

     Any mom with knowledge and opportunity would do the same thing for her child. This blog was created so that people who didn't even know there were new treatments for people with food allergies existed, could now go seek out more information. I'm not an expert on OIT, but I will share about it because it is what we chose. There are other methods, some more successful than others, but they exist. We need to make this mainstream because 1 out of 13 kids has a food allergy and it will only get worse.  This will become everyone's problem at one point or another. If it isn't your child, it will be a friend of theirs.
     I promise my next post will be light and fluffy with the sprinkling of humor you are used to from me. I just get fired up when people start dying from food. It's a gut punch. Stay safe and keep your kids safe, whether it's by putting that phone down while driving, making sure your kids are properly restrained in the appropriate car seat or being sure to read those labels and carry your emergency supplies before feeding your kids with allergies.  

"My Allergies Aren't That Severe...."

     I've had so many starts to my next post in my head and haven't put them on the screen yet, but this morning, I knew I had to get to work. You see, this morning I read about death number four just this month due to food allergies. These stories are far too common and they break my heart.  They also reaffirm that we are doing the absolute right thing by taking this chance on going to Utah for OIT.

     Just in sharing our personal story I have heard, on multiple occasions, "I applaud what you are doing. Thankfully my child's food allergies aren't that severe."  That statement is like nails on a chalkboard to me.  If your child has reacted to a food with hives, swelling...MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EPINEPHRINE.  It IS that serious. It IS life-threatening.  The first reaction is usually a warning and subsequent reactions will only get more severe.  The kids who "only get hives" and don't have epinephrine on them are the ones that we hear about in the news who have died.  I am not exaggerating, I am not trying to scare you, I am simply stating that not taking food allergies seriously could have deadly consequences.
     I never wanted to be the crazy allergy parent and I was concerned about that image when we had to begin restricting more and more foods due to reactions. Guess what? I just don't care what you think of me now. My kid will not die because of my inattention. I will do anything in my power to give him the tools he needs to function safely.  I'm not brave for taking him away from his life for 6 months for desensitization.  I'm not selfless. I'm not any of the heroic things people are saying. I'm just a mom.  

     Any mom with knowledge and opportunity would do the same thing for her child. This blog was created so that people who didn't even know there were new treatments for people with food allergies existed, could now go seek out more information. I'm not an expert on OIT, but I will share about it because it is what we chose. There are other methods, some more successful than others, but they exist. We need to make this mainstream because 1 out of 13 kids has a food allergy and it will only get worse.  This will become everyone's problem at one point or another. If it isn't your child, it will be a friend of theirs.
     I promise my next post will be light and fluffy with the sprinkling of humor you are used to from me. I just get fired up when people start dying from food. It's a gut punch. Stay safe and keep your kids safe, whether it's by putting that phone down while driving, making sure your kids are properly restrained in the appropriate car seat or being sure to read those labels and carry your emergency supplies before feeding your kids with allergies.  

Treading Water

While we wait to get an offer on the house I have started the process of purging clothes that don't fit and knick knacks I don't need. I've been mentally prepping to spend weeks at a time away from my husband and being the sole care provider for my kids 24/7 for six months, miles and miles away from anyone we know.  My heart tells me we will have a blast, staying up late, enjoying four seasons and making memories all while securing a safer, less stressful future for my son. My head keeps me up at night.
I've always been a night owl but throughout the years I have been plagued, on and off, with insomnia. It began in my teenage years and lessoned into adulthood and then recently came back as my son's allergy flared.  In addition to laying awake contemplating this little guy's future, I started worrying that I wasn't worrying enough about my daughter. She is our wild one. I could be so incredibly attentive to my son's health concerns that I don't watch her jump headlong off a staircase! If you know her, you realize that not only is this probable, but she would probably also be in heels. Did I mention she is three years old?
Amidst these worries, I also choose bedtime as the time I review my list of motherly atrocities for the day. Something about kissing their sweet cheeks goodnight and marveling at their beauty and innocence rushes forth this sea of guilt about my lack of patience, tone and volume of my voice and those fleeting wistful remembrances of what it was like to live in a quiet apartment all alone and how nice it was.  As I try to sleep, I cry at how horrible of a mother I was that day and vow to do better tomorrow. I wonder if they will need therapy. I wonder at how inattentive I must be that my son needs both speech and occupational therapy at school. School? Are we at the best school?  The little one has two more years until school. Can I survive that long? Did I really just think that? Oh my gosh, my BABY is going to school in two short years!
I do this for about 5 hours or until my brain explodes.  30 minutes later, someone crawls in bed with me and I pretend to be comatose while my husband gets up with them.  Oh no! I make my husband get up with the kids? I am a terrible wife!  I should clean more and do his laundry....
No more sleep for this mama.

Am I the only one who does this?

Treading Water

While we wait to get an offer on the house I have started the process of purging clothes that don't fit and knick knacks I don't need. I've been mentally prepping to spend weeks at a time away from my husband and being the sole care provider for my kids 24/7 for six months, miles and miles away from anyone we know.  My heart tells me we will have a blast, staying up late, enjoying four seasons and making memories all while securing a safer, less stressful future for my son. My head keeps me up at night.
I've always been a night owl but throughout the years I have been plagued, on and off, with insomnia. It began in my teenage years and lessoned into adulthood and then recently came back as my son's allergy flared.  In addition to laying awake contemplating this little guy's future, I started worrying that I wasn't worrying enough about my daughter. She is our wild one. I could be so incredibly attentive to my son's health concerns that I don't watch her jump headlong off a staircase! If you know her, you realize that not only is this probable, but she would probably also be in heels. Did I mention she is three years old?
Amidst these worries, I also choose bedtime as the time I review my list of motherly atrocities for the day. Something about kissing their sweet cheeks goodnight and marveling at their beauty and innocence rushes forth this sea of guilt about my lack of patience, tone and volume of my voice and those fleeting wistful remembrances of what it was like to live in a quiet apartment all alone and how nice it was.  As I try to sleep, I cry at how horrible of a mother I was that day and vow to do better tomorrow. I wonder if they will need therapy. I wonder at how inattentive I must be that my son needs both speech and occupational therapy at school. School? Are we at the best school?  The little one has two more years until school. Can I survive that long? Did I really just think that? Oh my gosh, my BABY is going to school in two short years!
I do this for about 5 hours or until my brain explodes.  30 minutes later, someone crawls in bed with me and I pretend to be comatose while my husband gets up with them.  Oh no! I make my husband get up with the kids? I am a terrible wife!  I should clean more and do his laundry....
No more sleep for this mama.

Am I the only one who does this?

F**k You, Mr. Peanut (Part II)

It has never been my nature to play defense. I find solutions and get things done. Therefore, this notion that my son will have to constantly work around a peanut allergy and restrict his life due to a food allergy, did not sit well with me.  Especially since the anaphylactic reaction in late July of 2013, I have been seeking out ways to make his life better and his allergy less of an influence on our life...which really led to the exact opposite. It's been on the forefront of our minds in an attempt to keep him safe while looking for answers.
Unfortunately for my son, the stress of feeling of his body going into anaphylaxis and the shot of epinephrine has caused him a great deal of anxiety. When your little boy continues to ask you, "Am I going to die, Mommy?" with his little lip quivering any time he gets an itchy eye or a little hive, well, you develop anxiety, as well.  I've had a lot of sleepless nights considering the "what if's." Continuing to live this way without looking for a solution was simply not an option.
At first, I discovered scent detection dogs who act as service dogs that can detect the smallest trace of peanut even when hidden inside another food.  Our dog trainer for our Australian Shepherd puppy began working with us on training, but it became clear, very quickly that our 1year old dog has the mentality of a 5-yr-old boy and would need more time to mature.  Getting a trained scent detection dog from one of the wonderful agencies out there would cost us close to $20,000.  While I'm sure we could have gone this route with a lot of fundraising, I decided to keep looking for another answer.
I discovered NAET, SLT, trials and studies. Ultimately, OIT is the one that stood out for me and I began to research oral immunotherapy like crazy. In a nutshell (See what I did there? This post was entirely too serious), OIT will mean my son will INGEST HIS POISON, peanuts, in order to become resistant to them. I will explain the process more in future posts, just be assured this is under doctor supervision in minuscule doses at first, in a controlled environment. There are only a handful of doctors in the private sector, outside of trials, that are offering this therapy and of course, not one of them is in Arizona.

Image courtesy of DeborahMiller56 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After chatting with a mom at my son's school whose children have severe food allergies, she reaffirmed my belief that OIT was for us. I joined Facebook groups for parents also navigating the world of food allergies and groups for those who had chosen to begin OIT. These groups gave me a glimpse into the everyday life of a family involved in these treatments. I got to read about stomach aches and red, itchy ears but I also got to see pictures of kids eating their first peanut M&M! I saw happy dances after completing the 24 peanut challenge. Most of all, I finally saw hope for my son.
I looked into the closest doctors which were in Long Beach, CA; Dallas, TX and Layton, UT. While reading in one of the OIT Facebook groups, I saw a post from an actual doctor who is offering OIT.

"Offering OIT is not about OIT and it certainly is not about me. Rather, it is about a patient. For those of us who offer it, I think most of us are sincerely striving to offer an opportunity for patients to be in a safer situation with less anxiety, fear, and more freedom. My patients can speak to this, I am very candid about what OIT is and what it is not. I am also very up front in saying there will likely be better, safer, less cumbersome therapies available in the future. OIT docs will be amongst the first to utilize and implement these therapies when they are available because we are the absolute most dedicated physicians in the world to food allergic patients. I will be all over it. That is called progress. But, OIT is the best available treatment we have available at this time. I do OIT with people who are willing to partner with me in an effort to make life better and safer and have a life of more freedom. OIT certainly does not solve everything and I don't think any of us claim that, but I strongly feel that it makes life so much better in so many ways. I will continue to offer this life-changing treatment with my eyes on the future. I will continue to implement the latest and greatest when it is available to the best patients ever. I am dedicated to my patients and nothing else."


I was sold. THIS is who I want to partner with in my son's OIT journey. I emailed the office in Utah for more information. Within an hour they were calling me and not long after that I was on the phone with the doctor himself.  Our only obstacle now was distance.  Neither my husband nor I were comfortable taking weekly flights with our son to Utah, in addition to it being cost prohibitive.  Driving 13 hours each way, with hundreds of miles of nothing (can you imagine if he had a reaction with nothing around?) was also out of the question.  Our enthusiasm faded as reality set in.  Months passed.As of right now, our house is for sale. We had planned to move a few miles farther north, closer to my son's school.  While asking about blood tests in one of the allergy groups, I began speaking with a mom who moved to Utah temporarily while her son underwent treatments.  All of a sudden, it was clear. The time is NOW.  This is our chance to give our son what he needs the most...freedom. Freedom of this allergy, freedom to just be a boy...go to baseball games, travel with his family,  and to go on sleepovers without mom inspecting his friend's pantry first.This is our official announcement. When our house is under contract we will begin selling off our things, storing others and bringing a small trailer to Utah to sustain me, the kids and the dog for 6 months. My husband will stay here and continue to grow his business and live with his mom. She will be happy to have someone around the house.  It will be a scary time, but an exciting, hopeful time. In the end, 6 months will be a blip in time that hopefully changes our lives.  I plan to blog about my son's process and progress. I will ask for your kind thoughts and prayers and hope that you all with be with us on this incredible journey!


*While we appreciate comments, try to keep them positive. Be assured this is a well-researched decision, one that is right four OUR family.

F**k You, Mr. Peanut (Part II)

It has never been my nature to play defense. I find solutions and get things done. Therefore, this notion that my son will have to constantly work around a peanut allergy and restrict his life due to a food allergy, did not sit well with me.  Especially since the anaphylactic reaction in late July of 2013, I have been seeking out ways to make his life better and his allergy less of an influence on our life...which really led to the exact opposite. It's been on the forefront of our minds in an attempt to keep him safe while looking for answers.
Unfortunately for my son, the stress of feeling of his body going into anaphylaxis and the shot of epinephrine has caused him a great deal of anxiety. When your little boy continues to ask you, "Am I going to die, Mommy?" with his little lip quivering any time he gets an itchy eye or a little hive, well, you develop anxiety, as well.  I've had a lot of sleepless nights considering the "what if's." Continuing to live this way without looking for a solution was simply not an option.
At first, I discovered scent detection dogs who act as service dogs that can detect the smallest trace of peanut even when hidden inside another food.  Our dog trainer for our Australian Shepherd puppy began working with us on training, but it became clear, very quickly that our 1year old dog has the mentality of a 5-yr-old boy and would need more time to mature.  Getting a trained scent detection dog from one of the wonderful agencies out there would cost us close to $20,000.  While I'm sure we could have gone this route with a lot of fundraising, I decided to keep looking for another answer.
I discovered NAET, SLT, trials and studies. Ultimately, OIT is the one that stood out for me and I began to research oral immunotherapy like crazy. In a nutshell (See what I did there? This post was entirely too serious), OIT will mean my son will INGEST HIS POISON, peanuts, in order to become resistant to them. I will explain the process more in future posts, just be assured this is under doctor supervision in minuscule doses at first, in a controlled environment. There are only a handful of doctors in the private sector, outside of trials, that are offering this therapy and of course, not one of them is in Arizona.

Image courtesy of DeborahMiller56 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After chatting with a mom at my son's school whose children have severe food allergies, she reaffirmed my belief that OIT was for us. I joined Facebook groups for parents also navigating the world of food allergies and groups for those who had chosen to begin OIT. These groups gave me a glimpse into the everyday life of a family involved in these treatments. I got to read about stomach aches and red, itchy ears but I also got to see pictures of kids eating their first peanut M&M! I saw happy dances after completing the 24 peanut challenge. Most of all, I finally saw hope for my son.
I looked into the closest doctors which were in Long Beach, CA; Dallas, TX and Layton, UT. While reading in one of the OIT Facebook groups, I saw a post from an actual doctor who is offering OIT.

"Offering OIT is not about OIT and it certainly is not about me. Rather, it is about a patient. For those of us who offer it, I think most of us are sincerely striving to offer an opportunity for patients to be in a safer situation with less anxiety, fear, and more freedom. My patients can speak to this, I am very candid about what OIT is and what it is not. I am also very up front in saying there will likely be better, safer, less cumbersome therapies available in the future. OIT docs will be amongst the first to utilize and implement these therapies when they are available because we are the absolute most dedicated physicians in the world to food allergic patients. I will be all over it. That is called progress. But, OIT is the best available treatment we have available at this time. I do OIT with people who are willing to partner with me in an effort to make life better and safer and have a life of more freedom. OIT certainly does not solve everything and I don't think any of us claim that, but I strongly feel that it makes life so much better in so many ways. I will continue to offer this life-changing treatment with my eyes on the future. I will continue to implement the latest and greatest when it is available to the best patients ever. I am dedicated to my patients and nothing else."


I was sold. THIS is who I want to partner with in my son's OIT journey. I emailed the office in Utah for more information. Within an hour they were calling me and not long after that I was on the phone with the doctor himself.  Our only obstacle now was distance.  Neither my husband nor I were comfortable taking weekly flights with our son to Utah, in addition to it being cost prohibitive.  Driving 13 hours each way, with hundreds of miles of nothing (can you imagine if he had a reaction with nothing around?) was also out of the question.  Our enthusiasm faded as reality set in.  Months passed.As of right now, our house is for sale. We had planned to move a few miles farther north, closer to my son's school.  While asking about blood tests in one of the allergy groups, I began speaking with a mom who moved to Utah temporarily while her son underwent treatments.  All of a sudden, it was clear. The time is NOW.  This is our chance to give our son what he needs the most...freedom. Freedom of this allergy, freedom to just be a boy...go to baseball games, travel with his family,  and to go on sleepovers without mom inspecting his friend's pantry first.This is our official announcement. When our house is under contract we will begin selling off our things, storing others and bringing a small trailer to Utah to sustain me, the kids and the dog for 6 months. My husband will stay here and continue to grow his business and live with his mom. She will be happy to have someone around the house.  It will be a scary time, but an exciting, hopeful time. In the end, 6 months will be a blip in time that hopefully changes our lives.  I plan to blog about my son's process and progress. I will ask for your kind thoughts and prayers and hope that you all with be with us on this incredible journey!


*While we appreciate comments, try to keep them positive. Be assured this is a well-researched decision, one that is right four OUR family.

F**k You, Mr. Peanut (Part I)

I've said this to the tv screen in a fit of self pity and despair with my middle finger straight up (no, my kids were not in the room). I realize I have no right to feel pity or despair for my son simply due to a food allergy. I know that things could be so much worse and trust me, I thank God every day for our good health. This is simply an inconvenience, but since it is a life-threatening inconvenience, it does dictate a lot about our lives that I wish I didn't.
We lived the first 2 or 3 years knowing my son was allergic to peanuts with some relatively mild reactions.  Mostly it was huge swelling eyes, where the whites would get so big they would cover the colored parts, all from touching something with peanut residue and then rubbing his face with his grubby little fingers.  We avoided foods that said "may contain peanuts" but continued to use "made in a facility with..." and continued to eat out and fly on airplanes, just notifying the powers that be that our son had a severe allergy and it seemed to be enough. He was ok and we weren't those "crazy allergy people."
One week before the scariest day of my life (also known as my first born's first day of kindergarten), the ACTUAL scariest day of my life occurred. After meet the teacher night, our family went with another family from my son's new class over to a locally-owned restaurant that touts fresh vegetables they grow themselves.  As always, my son ordered a grilled cheese, cut in half and a side of fruit and as always, we notified them of his peanut allergy. It was his favorite restaurant and favorite meal. Normally, after he inhales his dinner, he begs to go next door to get a cupcake.  This time, though, halfway through his sandwich he turned to me with glazed eyes and said, "Mommy, I think I ate too much. My stomach hurts."  I have learned on this journey to go with what I like to call, mommy-gut.  My mommy-gut (not quite the same as mommy-tummy, which I also have) sunk and I instantly knew. I knew there was something wrong.

Image courtesy of PublicDomainPictures at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I rushed him to a sink to rinse his hands and his mouth, which had now begun bleeding because the insides of his mouth had started to swell.  I ran to the kitchen and asked how they prepared his sandwich because he was reacting and he is only anaphylactic allergen was peanuts.  A manager came out and assured me they prepared it properly, but "just in case" they wanted my contact info. At this time, the mom of the family with us noticed hives on my son's face. I questioned if I should shoot him with epinephrine (hint: yes, I should have! Upset stomach and mouth swelling is two system involement which means anaphylaxis is occurring and epinephrine is necessary) and we decided to pack up and leave to go to the closest urgent care, about .25 mile away. As they injected him with life-saving epineprine, I wondered if I would have another day with my son. I wondered if we had waited too late to give him the medicine or if the medicine itself would stop his heart.  I was so happy when the symptoms began to fade, I agreed when the doctor offered my son a dye-filled Otter Pop. (As I type this, I realize this is probably the cause to his strange aversion to Otter Pops. I thought it had to do with my amazing parenting causing him to now hate dyes and sugars. Really, he just hates needles.)  I had to give him steroids in order to avoid a biphasic reaction  which is a secondary reaction to the allergen that can come back without warning as soon as the epinephrine wears off, up to four days later. I hugged him to sleep each of those four nights and I wondered how on earth I could explain why there was a 5-year-old wrapped in bubble wrap living in a locked bedroom in my house.
We followed up with his regular allergist the following week and were told the same as always, "Continue to avoid peanuts."  Obviously, this is what we had been doing and would continue to do, but now it was clear we could not leave the responsibility to others.  Eating out became limited by not only our preference for clean eating, but also by which restaurants did not serve or carry peanuts or peanut butter in any capacity.  We had already stopped flying because of an incident involving peanuts on a supposed allergy-friendly carrier earlier in the year.  Going to school was scary, but fortunately, the school we had chosen for my son was a charter with not only academic philosophies we loved, but was also free of birthday and holiday treats in order to support their nutrition policy which included no nuts on campus.  If I had to let him out of his room, I felt better about letting him go to school with a very allergy-aware staff, trained in how to use his epipen, and hopefully aware parents who remembered not to send peanuts to school.
Another, more mild, reaction to hummus caused us to stop buying any products that were "made in a facility with peanuts."  We had arrived! We were now in the land of "crazy allergy people." We were now the people others thought went overboard because of an allergy. We were now the parents people hated because their child's right to eat what they wanted was infringed upon. We were now supposedly the kind of people making our child think the whole world needed to revolve around him and his allergy.
In truth, we were and are none of those things. We are parents simply trying to keep our child alive because there is a common food out there that can kill him.  To us, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is just, if not more dangerous than a loaded gun.  The difference being that people tend to be more conscious of their loaded weapon than the are with PB & J smeared all over faces and hands.  One touch, and my kid's life is in the balance.  It's a hard concept to understand that a staple food for some is a death sentence for others. I was once unaware, too, which is why I want to share our journey with you. A journey to freeing ourselves of a peanut allergy.  A journey that I hope will lead to a time where my six year old can stop contemplating his own mortality and start being a kid again.
Stay tuned....

F**k You, Mr. Peanut (Part I)

I've said this to the tv screen in a fit of self pity and despair with my middle finger straight up (no, my kids were not in the room). I realize I have no right to feel pity or despair for my son simply due to a food allergy. I know that things could be so much worse and trust me, I thank God every day for our good health. This is simply an inconvenience, but since it is a life-threatening inconvenience, it does dictate a lot about our lives that I wish I didn't.
We lived the first 2 or 3 years knowing my son was allergic to peanuts with some relatively mild reactions.  Mostly it was huge swelling eyes, where the whites would get so big they would cover the colored parts, all from touching something with peanut residue and then rubbing his face with his grubby little fingers.  We avoided foods that said "may contain peanuts" but continued to use "made in a facility with..." and continued to eat out and fly on airplanes, just notifying the powers that be that our son had a severe allergy and it seemed to be enough. He was ok and we weren't those "crazy allergy people."
One week before the scariest day of my life (also known as my first born's first day of kindergarten), the ACTUAL scariest day of my life occurred. After meet the teacher night, our family went with another family from my son's new class over to a locally-owned restaurant that touts fresh vegetables they grow themselves.  As always, my son ordered a grilled cheese, cut in half and a side of fruit and as always, we notified them of his peanut allergy. It was his favorite restaurant and favorite meal. Normally, after he inhales his dinner, he begs to go next door to get a cupcake.  This time, though, halfway through his sandwich he turned to me with glazed eyes and said, "Mommy, I think I ate too much. My stomach hurts."  I have learned on this journey to go with what I like to call, mommy-gut.  My mommy-gut (not quite the same as mommy-tummy, which I also have) sunk and I instantly knew. I knew there was something wrong.

Image courtesy of PublicDomainPictures at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I rushed him to a sink to rinse his hands and his mouth, which had now begun bleeding because the insides of his mouth had started to swell.  I ran to the kitchen and asked how they prepared his sandwich because he was reacting and he is only anaphylactic allergen was peanuts.  A manager came out and assured me they prepared it properly, but "just in case" they wanted my contact info. At this time, the mom of the family with us noticed hives on my son's face. I questioned if I should shoot him with epinephrine (hint: yes, I should have! Upset stomach and mouth swelling is two system involement which means anaphylaxis is occurring and epinephrine is necessary) and we decided to pack up and leave to go to the closest urgent care, about .25 mile away. As they injected him with life-saving epineprine, I wondered if I would have another day with my son. I wondered if we had waited too late to give him the medicine or if the medicine itself would stop his heart.  I was so happy when the symptoms began to fade, I agreed when the doctor offered my son a dye-filled Otter Pop. (As I type this, I realize this is probably the cause to his strange aversion to Otter Pops. I thought it had to do with my amazing parenting causing him to now hate dyes and sugars. Really, he just hates needles.)  I had to give him steroids in order to avoid a biphasic reaction  which is a secondary reaction to the allergen that can come back without warning as soon as the epinephrine wears off, up to four days later. I hugged him to sleep each of those four nights and I wondered how on earth I could explain why there was a 5-year-old wrapped in bubble wrap living in a locked bedroom in my house.
We followed up with his regular allergist the following week and were told the same as always, "Continue to avoid peanuts."  Obviously, this is what we had been doing and would continue to do, but now it was clear we could not leave the responsibility to others.  Eating out became limited by not only our preference for clean eating, but also by which restaurants did not serve or carry peanuts or peanut butter in any capacity.  We had already stopped flying because of an incident involving peanuts on a supposed allergy-friendly carrier earlier in the year.  Going to school was scary, but fortunately, the school we had chosen for my son was a charter with not only academic philosophies we loved, but was also free of birthday and holiday treats in order to support their nutrition policy which included no nuts on campus.  If I had to let him out of his room, I felt better about letting him go to school with a very allergy-aware staff, trained in how to use his epipen, and hopefully aware parents who remembered not to send peanuts to school.
Another, more mild, reaction to hummus caused us to stop buying any products that were "made in a facility with peanuts."  We had arrived! We were now in the land of "crazy allergy people." We were now the people others thought went overboard because of an allergy. We were now the parents people hated because their child's right to eat what they wanted was infringed upon. We were now supposedly the kind of people making our child think the whole world needed to revolve around him and his allergy.
In truth, we were and are none of those things. We are parents simply trying to keep our child alive because there is a common food out there that can kill him.  To us, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is just, if not more dangerous than a loaded gun.  The difference being that people tend to be more conscious of their loaded weapon than the are with PB & J smeared all over faces and hands.  One touch, and my kid's life is in the balance.  It's a hard concept to understand that a staple food for some is a death sentence for others. I was once unaware, too, which is why I want to share our journey with you. A journey to freeing ourselves of a peanut allergy.  A journey that I hope will lead to a time where my six year old can stop contemplating his own mortality and start being a kid again.
Stay tuned....