One good think about having a peanut allergy.

As I watch all my friends, gorge themselves, on Girl Scout cookies, I am ever so thankful, it is something, I just can't have in my house. Don't get me wrong, I love them, that's the problem.

We donated a couple boxes to their share program. I am just grateful, that I am not eating them, a box at a time. Trust me, I would be too. I would open a box, and just pray that I did not eat the whole thing.

So there, I am trying to get out of a funk I have been in. That's my start, something I am grateful for, in the midst of so much going on. If you've never checked out our other blog Matters of the Heart click here. Lot's of recent pictures of the kids and I will have my 200th post up pretty soon.

Have a great weekend.

What's going on, in the nut and egg free home, lately.

Thought I would share a little about, what is going on, around here lately. Our new found egg free life, mixed with our normally nut free living, is working well. My little guy has been feeling well. The transition has really not been that bad for us.

We are completely egg free, and it has seriously cleared all the problems, we had been having up. We did have one episode last night, we ate out, immediately after dinner, he had diarrhea. He had grilled cheese and french fries, which usually is safe for him. Not sure,however, he felt fine after that.

One other interesting thing did happen yesterday though. We were sitting in the lobby, of my daughters dance class, waiting for her to get done. In walks a Dad, eating a granola bar, sure enough, he sits down next to us. Immediately, I smell the peanut butter. Instant fear runs through me. I think I can smell it from a mile away now. Needless to say, I got up and stood near her door. I bet he thought I was rude. I wonder if he should have been eating it himself, with the recall and all.

On another note, this weekend is my daughters birthday. I will be making my first egg free cake. Oh, how I miss buying those beautiful, already decorated cakes. I will be practicing my frosting techniques today. Pray for me, she wants this lovely tiara cake. I sure hope I can pull it off.

Acceptance was the answer

I am back, and in a much better mood, for that matter. My last post was really not how I usually am. I just felt like it was a big blow, to have to eliminate, yet another set of foods.

Without going into much detail, of the last few days, I have recovered my usually optimistic outlook.

The reality is, nothing I can do, is going to change the situation. I have accepted what we can, and can't eat, and am now looking at how we accomplish daily living, without certain foods.

Interestingly enough, my little guy has not complained once, of a stomach ache, since eliminating everything with egg in it. His bowel movements are back to normal also. Acceptance, and action, really was our answer.

Now, I am looking for answers from all you egg allergic individuals. We have the whole nut-free living under control, now we move into uncovering the facts about egg-free life.

What do you use to replace mayonnaise in things? Have a good pancake recipe? What about a yummy birthday cake, since we are celebrating my daughters birthday soon. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

It really does stink to have allergies.

Sorry I am in such a sour mood. I just want the whole allergy thing to go away. Sorry it has taken me so long to get a post about this up. I think I am just still processing all of the information.

The little guy had another RAST done, just under a year after our first. One, the allergist wanted to see where we were with the nuts, and two, the little guy was and is having many GI difficulties.

Long story short, simply because it still pains me to talk about it, he is allergic to everything, it seems. Somethings not as much, others off the charts.

The most disturbing is, his peanut levels actually went up, quite a bit for that matter. He also tested positive for Wheat, Soy, and Eggs. The levels of his wheat and soy are low, which are probably not the cause of his discomfort. The big problem is eggs. His levels, are concurrent with, a 70% chance of having a physical reaction.

This is what we are going to start with eliminating. Part of me, is kind of glad, that it might me eggs, and not wheat. I am not sure how I really feel about any of it, if I am really being honest.

For now, I just want my little guy to feel better.

His first bite

I posted a Flashback Friday post, over at Matters of the Heart. It actually has a photo of my little man, and his first bite of peanut butter....

A yucky feeling, to look back and see that photo. Click here if you want to read our walk down memory lane.

Clean bill of health.

My little guy finally got his two year check up today. All is well, and he is growing normally.

Talked only a little bit today about the allergies, our Primary Care Doctor does not offer much in this department. He is knowledgeable, however, I have always found the allergist more helpful. One thing we did talk about, was some of the his so called, lower level allergies.

When I say that, I mean the foods he got a one or a two on his RAST. My understanding, was to stay away from the two's, and if the one's, gave no reactions, then they were okay. Peanuts and Tree nuts are all above a level three for him.

Wheat, some fruits, clams and a few others are at level one and two. Since it is fall, and pumpkin everything (which happens to me one of my favorites) is all around. I needed to double check one item that was on his list. My little guy has a level two allergy to nutmeg.

Anybody else have nutmeg included in their allergy list? Anybody have a good nutmeg free pumpkin pie recipe?

Allergies, Eczema, Asthma

Do the three go to together? I am really hoping not in our case. I am told that these three things often accompany each other in certain individuals. We have been diagnosed with two out of the three, and our praying we do not hit the third.

My little guy was having a hard time breathing today, and had an ugly cough. It is hard to describe what he sounds like, it is more what he looks like, that always concerns me. It looks like he has to hold his breath to cough. Almost like his cheeks puff out, and he has a hard time getting it out.

It seemed like everything lined up for us just right. I called our Primary Physician, to see if we could get in, due to the cough. It always starts like this, then by the second night, we are so bad we end up in the ER needing a steroid shot. I wanted to get a head start on it this time. So glad I did.

Went in, and sure enough, Zach started coughing when we were in there. Dr. said is lungs sounded okay, however, the cough didn't sound good, and he could see there was a little trouble on exhale.

They brought up, what I call the "A" word. The "A" word in our house is asthma. It is bad enough we have life threatening peanut and tree nut allergies, I just don't want my baby to have asthma too.

Our doctor said the office had a new Allergist/Immunologist on staff, so I would not have to be referred out anymore. He thought maybe he was available to see us today. He asked if I would like to go on over. Of course I said yes.

Very good visit. Of course, just going over everything again is a bit daunting. He reviewed his tests again and said because of the reaction we were seen for originally he called Zach a true peanut allergy patient.

It made sense after I thought about, first I was a bit taken back. What do you mean, there are false peanut allergy patients? I was a bit sensitive today, it is just a term they use.

I guess, if you just have a positive test, and never a reaction, they are not sure if you are really allergic. We had a reaction first, then a positive test. He also said, given the fact that all our rash/eczema issues have cleared, since giving up all tree nut and potential tree nut products, he was probably truly allergic there also. He was really speaking to the false positive and false negative aspect to the RAST test.

We reviewed the original RAST, and yep all four's and fives. The Dr. was more concerned with the other level (number) that is noted. He showed me data on the probability of reaction with each nut and peanut. It was great data, not sure where he got it.

I really had a nice conversation with the doctor. He said," some people just don't get it." That is so true. Once again, it was nice to be reminded that I can never be too paranoid about this. He has a two year old at home also, so he could relate to that aspect.

He was real big on discussing all the cross contamination issues, which again, was so helpful. I love hearing that I am not going overboard. I am doing everything I can to protect my child, and that is exactly what I am suppose to be doing.

I loved his statement, "people just don't get it." It sums it up so well. The reality for me is, they don't have too. My job is to protect my child, as I see fit, and you can't blame me for that. Trust me, if they were in our shoes, they would do the exact same thing.

Some days, it is so overwhelming to live with this allergy, and the fear it brings, and others, like today, I feel empowered. My God is bigger than this allergy, and I can do this with his help.

I will talk about the asthma issue, and what the new doctor said about that, in a later post. I want to see how Zach does tonight with the medication.

How it all happened.

Not sure when, or where, I remember the very first sign of problem. One thing I will say, anything I write in this blog, is simply my interpretation of our situation. I am by no means an expert, or authority, on any allergies. I just know what has happened to us, what we have been told, and how we handle our daily living.

Hindsight is twenty twenty, they say. Looking back, I can tell you all the signs I missed, and of course, all the things I should have, or shouldn't have done.

Truth be told, I am really bad about second guessing myself. All that aside, I refuse to play the blame game on myself.

Zach was born a little early, after a horrible pregnancy. I read, not to long ago, about a study done on stressful pregnancies and allergies. Who knows???

Everything that could go wrong, went wrong, every test that could come back bad, came back bad. Tons of outside emotional stress, and a long stay in the hospital on bed rest, when I had sixteen month old at home. Even when I got home, I remained on bed rest, until a week before he was born.

He came into the world looking perfect, doesn't every mother think that? He was though, everything was fine. He looked good, took to nursing right away, and slept better than my first baby right off the bat.

A couple weeks later, he got, what the doctor called, eczema. He also had the cradle cap real bad. Nothing took the rash away. We finally got a prescription cream that kept it at bay. This rash lasted a very long time, it also came up in different places. Not once did anyone suggest it was something I could be eating.

When Zach started solids, he often would get rashy around his mouth. He also always had a rash on his bottom. Not where typical diaper rash was, this was high up on the back of his bottom, the cheeks.... When his diaper was off, he would just scratch and scratch.

I did not know this until recently, not sure it would have changed things for me, however.....
I was told, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends you wait until your child is three before introducing peanut products. Do you know how many kids under three I know that eat peanut butter...

I also was told, after the fact, that a child that develops eczema early, is more prone to allergies. Again, I say, why did I find out these things from my doctor after the fact. Would I have waited to introduce peanuts given that information.

We will never know. At thirteen months Zach had a tiny bite of a peanut butter cup, it was Halloweeen, he was fine. A couple months after that, I gave him a quarter of a peanut butter sandwich with his lunch. He LOVED it.

After lunch I went to nurse him for nap. I looked down and he had a welt on his cheek, I watched him, within minutes his face was covered. By the time we got to the doctor he had welts from the top of his head to his stomach.

He was given a shot and an at home course of steroids for a week. We were also instructed not to give him peanut products and see our regular physician.

Now, even though we did not have the official diagnosis, I was devastated. I knew enough about a peanut allergy to know this was horrible news. This was something that could kill my son.

This is where it got sticky for me. Our physician said," looks like he might be allergic, don't let him have any." I thought, that is not good enough, shouldn't we know for sure? He said, "well, if you want we can do a blood test." Of course I want to know.

A few days later he calls and said we need to discuss Zach's allergies. That was plural. He went on to say that Zach did in fact have an allergy to peanuts and it was life threatening. He was also allergic to Almonds, cashews, filberts, walnuts etc... etc... There was not a nut he was not allergic to at a high level. He had fours and fives on most nuts on his RAST. Even nutmeg. He also had some level one's on a few things, wheat, clams and lemons. All I kept thinking was, and you did not even want to test him. What if I had given him almond butter instead.

We went into the office to get our referral to the allergist and our epi-pens. The rest is history. It is daily living with this scary allergy. Not sure if I am even incredibly happy with our allergist at this point.

One thing I do know, that Zach's rashes cleared up after we eliminated from his diet, anything and everything that said may contain nuts, processed in a facility with nuts and anything that had any nut in it. Amazing. There were so many things we ate that had trace amounts of nuts in them.

We have a totally nut free home for the safety of my child. There are so many situations, that come up on a daily basis, you deal with when you have a child with life threatening allergies. Reading other blogs, connecting to other families in similar situation, and now blogging myself, have all been a tremendous help.

This is how we found out the single thing that has changed our life forever. I look forward to sharing more of our journey as we march along.

My welcome message.

Living with a peanut, and tree nut allergic child, is one of the biggest challenges I have had to face to date.

In my next post, I will give you "our story", the one where we found out our lives would change forever.

I have been doing a lot of reading, and have found some great families out there, blogging about this very subject.

That is what kind of led me to branch out, and separate my blog. I will still blog at Matters of the Heart, however, "Nut Free Living" will be dedicated to just our peanut and tree nut allergy issues.

More often than not, the stories will intertwine, because, this is our life, as we know it.