Thursday, May 08, 2008

a bad moment

this video was sent by a friend who has a kid with allergies like grayson (aislyn has them too, just not as extensively). it was shown at the national food allergy initiative conference last weekend in seattle. this made me cry, it scared me so bad that this could be our life. grayson won't be sheltered by me forever. he will be older than 1 someday and out doing things other places. and aislyn, she has already had an awful reaction to a teensy bit of a nutter butter at target one day, causing me to take benadryl off the shelf in the pharmacy and pour it down her throat. she had an egg once and her eyelids were almost swollen shut within 10 minutes. what happens when i can't have them with me all the time? sometimes i think this is too much for me to handle. am i a control freak? probably. but still. is this our new life? will their caretakers understand? their friends? will someone mean kid shove a peanut in their mouth knowing they're allergic? do kids do stuff like that? oh my gosh i have to stop thinking now. i'm so having a moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I1wPqVz8d8

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing that link. As a teacher I become heartily tired of explaining to some parents why we cannot isolate the child who is allergic during lunch so the rest of the school can "enjoy" their peanut butter and Nutella, why the entire school must be peanut free, why I practically scrub myself to the shoulder before I leave the house before I go to school if I or my children have had peanut butter or Nutella for breakfast. And why they should thank God on their knees every day that they don't have to trust 400+ people in our school community to follow the rules so that their child remains safe. My heart goes out to you, I can imagine what vigilance you need to exercise to keep your children safe. God bless,

N. Palhinha

Anonymous said...

I wonder about this with Titus and milk, although milk doesn't usually result in an anaphalactic (sp?) reaction. Last night he grabbed Liana's cup and spilled her milk on the table. I grabbed his hand so he couldn't get it in his mouth and I thought I got all of it wiped up, but by bath time he was sneezing with snot running everywhere, had hives on his belly and started to scratch like crazy. It wasn't NEARLY as bad as the reaction with true ingestion, but it was kind of nasty. Watching that video made me sad too, but I just had to turn it off halfway through and turn my brain off. That's years away in terms of school, there's NOTHING we can do except teach them and care for them the best we can, and pray for the best. In my opinion, food allergies are becoming so much more of a norm, that I think that things are going to be a lot different when our kids are in school. It's not going to be such a stigma. My friend Renae's daughter is allergic to peanuts and has asthma. She's in 2nd grade and although she goes to a christian school, is still in a school environment. She's very cognizant of things and takes care of herself well. anyway, hang in there. one day at a time is hard enough - discipline yourself to worry about today. tomorrow will take care of itself. God commands that we not be anxious, which takes solid discipline - throw it up to Him!!! anna

Sally said...

I cried with you when I watched that. I love you and you are so strong and God will give you the grace and strength to get through this, even if that means living with it. I will pray for you more.