This is supposed to be a blog about gratitude's. A blog that is about changing your attitude to find the positive even in the negative. I have racked my brain over and over again. I cannot find one positive in having food allergies. I am not talking about the allergies that give you itchy skin or a runny nose. I am not talking about allergies that upset your belly or give you a migraine. I am talking about the food allergies that can cause your throat to swell, blocking your airway. I am talking about the fear that goes along with those allergies. Maybe one of my readers can tell me what I should be grateful for here. I am not grateful for food allergies. I am angry that my son has to live his life this way.
My little boy is only seven years old. He has had one episode where I could see the outline of each of rib. I can still see the terror in his little eyes. I can see him gasping and struggling to breathe. I hate this image in my head. My Davy has food allergies.
This morning he woke up with swelling under his eyes. Why? I do not know. I checked his back, his throat and quizzed him about all of his symptoms. No hives, no swelling. He said he is fine. I let him go to school today. That was hard. He knows his body better than I do. He knows if he is ok. I have to trust my little guy.
The only positive that I can see here is that I have Davy. I am grateful for my son. I do not want to live this life without him.
Recently I was asked to write what David's first reaction was like. The purpose of writing this is to help establish guideline in schools for children with food allergies. Here is what I wrote:
David's First Reaction
I was asked to write about the 1st reaction Davy had. Boy...that is a hard question to answer. Davy was born May 6, 2003. He was perfect in all ways. It wasn't until he was about 6 months old, that we started to clue in that something was not quite right. David's skin showed signs of eczema. We were prescribed the normal arsenal of treatments. Poor David would cry and cry whenever we put these lotions on his skin. His skin continued to get worse and worse. We did not know at that time that we were putting ingredients on his skin that he was allergic too. He then started lying down after dinner. His belly would hurt. He eyes always seemed puffy. We went back to the doctors several times. It was always the same diagnosis...Eczema.
One night, we put David to bed. A few hours passed. It was around 11PM when we heard the strange sounds coming from his room. My poor boy was having a hard time breathing. My husband rushed him off to the 24 hour Urgent Care where they gave him two breathing treatments. Once he was able to breathe without difficulty, the doctors sent him home. Mark told me that they thought he may have the croup. The next morning, my son was fine. No illness at all. I knew something else was wrong. I made another appointment and asked for him to be tested for food allergies. The doctor reassured me that food allergies were rare. But she was kind and wanted to put my mind at ease, so she ordered a blood test. Two weeks later, the phone rang. I was not home. The caller ID suggested that we had been called about eight times. The doctor left a message that said to call her right away. For the 1st time in my life, I was not able to make a call. Instead, my husband made the call. I stood beside him and heard him say, "Uh huh... Okay . So Corn, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish, peanuts, milk and eggs."
To this day that memory brings back many emotions that are difficult to put in writing. I knew our life had just changed in a way that I could not comprehend. I sat down with David and told him what the doctor had said. David's response makes me smile. He said in all the wisdom of a 3 1/2 to 4 year old, "Oh so that is what is making me sick. Oh good, then I just won't eat those foods." He seemed relieved that we would be able to help him. He has always been a champ about his allergies. It has been a long road, but I am happy to say that my son has outgrown all but 4(fish, shellfish, tree nuts and peanuts) of his allergies. There is hope for our children. We are going to continue having him tested on a yearly basis in hopes that he will one day outgrow all of his allergies. In the meantime, knowing he is safe when we send to school is a gift.
The End.
Dear friends and readers,
My gratitude’s are still many and I will get back to writing those later, but for today I wanted to focus on something I am not grateful for. Just for today, I wanted to write about allergies for they will not be a part of my gratitude list, but it is a reality of my life.
As always.. I am grateful for life.
