Awww, Nuts!

It's been several months since we found out that Persephone has a life-threatening peanut and cashew allergy and I'm still dealing with the diagnosis. I'm arming myself with all the information I can find. It's life changing for our family, but I'm trying to stay optimistic and up-beat. Here are some of the things we have to think about now:

* Reading every single label. She can't eat anything with nuts, that may contain nuts, or may have been processed in the same place as nuts.

* Restaurants have become scary places and this is a real bummer for a family that enjoys eating out. Asian food, ice cream parlors and bakeries are out of the question since they pose too much risk for cross-contamination.

* Carrying an epi-pen everywhere I go and always looking for possible signs of an allergic reaction. Staying up to date with my CPR and carrying a cell phone in case I need to call 911 has become a priority.

* Making cookies, cakes, and any other baked goods from scratch since most candies and chocolates are off limits for Persy

* Worrying about what we'll do for holidays like Easter, Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day. We've found a few sites where we can order peanut-free chocolate, but I've been working on coming up with creative candy alternatives.

* Concerns that she will pick up something with nuts and eat it or some other child or adult will unknowingly give her something with nuts.

On a positive note, Persy has been very cooperative about her asthma breathing treatments that we do each day. We call it "Bear Lungs" because it makes her strong like a bear and we do a big, ferocious growl each time. She also has a fun dinosaur mask that she uses with a nebulizer when she has an attack. I sometimes catch her putting her mask on her stuffed animals or "practicing" on her own.

More Medical Adventures

Sometimes I wish I had a medical degree. It would certainly be more useful in my role as a mother than the anthropology degree that I currently hold. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to expand my medical knowledge yet as another crisis unfolded with Persephone.

We were sitting at dinner and Persy was picking at her meal and whining about the nuisance and eating when I decided to give her some peanut butter in hopes of enticing her appetite. We had her 18 month appointment earlier in the day and the doctor had cleared me for introducing this new food into her diet. Within seconds of her first lick she began rubbing her eyes and sneezing. I hurried and snatched her from the high chair and immediately ran to the car as hives began to spread across her face.

Even though we live close to medical care, it always seems a long drive to me when I'm fighting traffic and I can't see her from the rear view mirror. Persy was coughing a little and I was quite worried that her respiratory problems would worsen during my drive to Instacare and she might go into anaphylaxis shock.

Fortunately, she remained stable through the drive and with a dose of benadryl her condition improved after a couple of hours of monitoring. I think the benadryl made her a little hyper because she spent the long evening at Instacare running around, saying "hi" to every entering patient, and delighting in the otterpops and suckers that the enamored nurses were supplying. The poor girl looked all swollen like Quasimoto, but she couldn't have cared less.

So, short story long, it looks like we will need to visit an allergist to confirm the peanut allergy. We also have to keep Persy away from any products that may contain peanuts, (which are a lot,) because any additional exposure greatly increases her risk for anaphylaxis shock. This child certainly knows how to keep things lively and expensive!