How Accidental Allergen Ingestion Happens

Last night we had a terrifying experience and it has prompted me to come back to my neglected blog.  I just want to publish our experience and show everyone who might come across this blog how easily anaphylactic shock can happen.

If you have been following my blog for a while or know us personally our awesome almost 4 year old Austin is allergic to many foods, including peanut and egg.  Both of these allergens produce an anaphylactic reaction.  So we steer clear of these foods and are constantly hovering over every item Austin puts in his mouth.

Back to last night.  It was Halloween and the kids were really excited to go trick or treating.  They were completely adorable going house to house, lifting their pumpkin buckets and saying "trickertreat".  Yes, that is one word "trickerteat".  It was windy and a bit rainy but they had soo much fun.  Which is exactly what kids should get to do - have fun!  Immediately following the trick or treating we lined the kids up with their cousins, for some pictures to remember this experience.

Everybody look this way and say cheese!!

Let me zoom in and show you what was happening while 4 crazy parents took pictures of their kids.

Just in case you can't tell, that is a yellow peanut m&m bag in my dear son's hands.  

And then this happened

That would be Austin ripping open the yellow bag of peanut m&m's.

Moments after this picture was taken Austin had something in his mouth.  Immediately Adam and I pounced on him and literally dug the peanut m&m out of his mouth.  He ate at most one - that's it just one.  Hives showed up immediately and once he began itching at his mouth we took him straight to the hospital.  

After a shot of epinephrine, a dose of benadryl and prednisone he was back to normal.  We stayed for monitoring for a few hours before heading home.

So what is the point of this post:  1. Show in pictures how a child can eat an allergen literally right before their parents eyes.  2. To start counting my blessings and being thankful.  I was overwhelmed with my blessings as I sat in the hospital last night and recalled a friend's blog where she counted her blessings and being thankful.  With it being November I felt it appropriate to blog my blessings and thankfulness this month.  So here we go.

1.  It was just one peanut.

2.  The hospital was literally 1-2 minutes away.

3.  Modern medicine is really lifesaving.

4.  I did not have to inject him with his EPI pen.  We were able to make it to the hospital fast enough that a nurse who is much more comfortable with needles could give him the shot.

 

And the most important of the day 5.  Austin is FINE!

 

 6.  Aubrey does not struggle with food allergies.  Here she is in her costume last night.  

**Sorry for the poor quality phone photos.  I had no idea I was taking pictures of a big event in our life**

Life Gets Busy - But that is a Good Thing

As you might or might not have noticed I have neglected to blog in over a year!  Yikes!  All I can say is life with two kiddos 19 months apart gets kind of busy and some things just go by the wayside.  My poor blog did get knocked off the shelf but I am organizing and de-cluttering our home & life and want to get back into this blogging thing.

What have we been up to in the past year:
Adam, my absolutely awesome husband.  He really is just great.

Austin is 3.5 years old now and FULL OF ENERGY!  He does not stop...ever.  I am not even sure if he actually sleeps.  Austin just started playing soccer and seems to be somewhat of a natural at it.  Even if scoring a goal on the wrong field is part of his stellar skills, this mama is so proud.  Austin is still battling his food allergies of eggs, peanuts, watermelon, apples and bananas.  We are also monitoring him for asthma.  He has had a couple asthmatic episodes that we just want to keep a close eye on. 
   Due to all of his fun allergies we have decided to keep him home from preschool.  Okay that is somewhat of a lie.  The decision to keep him home wasn't entirely ours.  Apparently food allergies and an epi pen make you some sort of liability risk.  Our local preschools just didn't feel comfortable taking Austin on as a student.  At first my mama bear instinct was strong hatred for Austin being stripped of the opportunities that preschool would present him with.  But over time I am so thankful the preschools expressed they were not comfortable taking him on.  I would NEVER forgive myself if Austin had an anaphylaxis episode that could have been prevented. 
  Since Austin is staying home until Kindergarten (they have registered school nurses there prepared for kids like Austin) we have just started homeschool preschool!!  Fun Fun Fun!  We started using no curriculum, just lessons I would prepare.  Quickly I discovered that there had to be an easier way.  We just started using God's Little Explorers curriculum.  So far I really do enjoy it and so do the kids.  I am going out of order because the reading teacher in me wants Austin to learn to read sooner rather than later.  I will hopefully continue to update our homeschooling preschool here a bit more in the future.

Moving on to our little princess - Aubrey.  She is 2 years old now.  I absolutely cannot believe she is 2.  It really seems like yesterday we brought her home from the hospital.  Aubrey's favorite activities are playing baby dolls, pretend cooking, playing with my hair, and pestering her brother.  She is such a sweet girl, very loving and caring.  Except when she is frustrated, then she hits.  It happens, we are working on it.  Austin just wasn't a hitter so we are new to this form of discipline. 
  Aubrey has started mommy and me gymnastics.  It is soo much fun!  After 3 weeks she can successfully walk on the big beam with only one hand for balance, do a forward roll, do a perfect handstand on a mat and perform a flip on the bars.  Her class is pretty intense and I am amazed with what her coach has the kids do.  Even though it is mommy and me, all I get to do is follow her around and help her when she needs it.  Aubrey spends the whole class telling me "all by myself, mommy". 

In the past year lots has changed in my life.  I made the decision that it was time to dedicate my time - all of it to being a full time mom & wife.  This means we had to close the dance studios.  It was a very bittersweet decision that had to be made.  It is extremely hard to close a door on what has been your passion for the past 20 years.  I loved dance - I loved teaching dance.  But right now, my kids and husband need me.  I still love dance and hope to share my passion with Aubrey as she gets older.