Gratituesday - all about the peanuts…
First, buckle up folks - it’s going to be a long post today!
Second, welcome to all the new visitors to DigiScrapChat! I’m so glad you found your way here, and if you came looking for grab bag reveals, there WILL be more, I promise.
Third, today is Tuesday, which means it’s Gratituesday time. My best friend Laura over at Heavenly Homemakers has a weekly “blog carnival” centered around gratitude and sharing what we are thankful for. I’ll be honest and say that gratitude is lacking in my life right now - not that I don’t have PLENTY of things to be thankful for - I’m just struggling a little bit with the actual BEING thankful. So, as a start, I’m going to be thankful for Laura and the weekly challenge/reminder to share gratitude.
But, today’s post is really all about the peanuts. I need to introduce you to my daughter first, because this post is about her too. So, here she is a few months ago on her first birthday. (Brag book pages courtesy of Kay Miller and Mary Fran of Nitwit Collections, the Happily Ever After kit/brag book quick pages).
This is Martha, and yes she is, in every way, our little princess.
But like the fabled “Princess and the Pea”, our little Martha is sensitive. Very, very, VERY sensitive. She is sensitive to wheat and oats. To egg whites. To cow’s milk. And a few others things. But mostly, she is sensitive to peanuts.
And by sensitive, I mean deathly allergic.
About two months ago, we were getting ready for a trip to CA to see my sister, and I was running around doing laundry and a variety of other fun things that a mom does when she gets her family ready for an extended trip. Lil Allan (big brother, age 3) was snacking on some peanut butter crackers. You know, the ones that come six to a package, and have a thin layer of peanut butter? Yeah, those.
Martha had not been given peanut butter yet in her life, because I’d read that “they” now recommend you wait until age three to expose babies/toddlers to peanut related foods. But that night, she grabbed a cracker. Lil Allan was having one, and it looked good! I saw her grab it and start to take a bite, and instantly I thought, “hmm.. that’s her first exposure to peanuts…” And then I took it away.
I’m not really sure why I took it away, especially since both boys were eating peanut butter crackers at this age. But something made me stop and take notice of the moment, and I just decided to be extra careful.
And I’m so, so thankful that I did.
Within just a short time, Martha was breathing funny, and looking funny, and it only got worse by the minute. She was soon gritting her teeth as she tried to take breaths, and turning purple in between times. I called grandma and Daddy called 911, and for the second time this year, I got to ride with one of my children in an ambulance to the ER.
To make a super long story semi-short, we followed up with our pediatrician… Martha got some bloodwork done… and we now know that she is deathly allergic to peanuts. (And sensitive to the other stuff I mentioned above).
It’s been a few weeks now since we found out, but you can tell I’m still processing it. I’m still pretty unhappy about it, actually. BUT, I’m also thankful for a few things, and here they are:
- I’m glad I took the cracker away from her. She had only the smallest bite - barely had time to hold it and take a bite. But even that amount set off a pretty severe reaction in her.
- I’m thankful that the ambulances respond SO fast. We’ve tested 911 out three times this year, and each time they were here within minutes.
- I’m glad her first reaction was minor. Yes, it was minor. Future reactions can put her into anaphalactic shock. She didn’t quite get that far this time, but the doctor said that the next time will probably be worse.
- I’m thankful for medicines like the epi-pen that we can carry with us to protect her and help her. I’m dreading the idea of using it, but at the same time, I’m just so, so glad that something exists to save her life if and when we have an accidental exposure.
- I’m thankful for the new tests they can do on babies and children - it’s a simple blood test (like such a thing exists when trying to take blood from a 15 month old, but you know what I mean!). The blood work gave us the results without enduring any other kind of testing like the scratch tests or “here have a peanut and we’ll watch for a reaction” kind of tests.
- I’m thankful that even now, as she is a baby girl, there are scientists out there trying to “crack the code” on this peanut thing and maybe, maybe by the time she is a teenager or young adult they will have better medicines and even preventative medicines to make it less life threatening for her and others like her.
So, that’s my list for today. We’re all still struggling a bit with the transition to peanut-free home (no more snickers, reeses peanut butter cups, or peanut m&m’s - what is a mom going to do??), but it’s a small price to pay to keep our little Princess healthy and safe.
What are YOU thankful for today? If you have something to share, I encourage you to write a blog post and link up at Heavenly Homemakers, or just share in the comments over there. It’s a lot of fun reading every week what everyone else is thankful for! As my husband is fond of saying, “Gratitude is an Attitude”, and I could use a little of that this week!
August 19th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Oh I’m so sorry about the peanut thing! She is a pretty cute peanut however!! My oldest started having a reaction to peanut butter so we had to switch to almond butter this year. It’s not bad, but sometimes a REAL PB&J sounds really good! I’ll pray for you as you and your family deal with this!
August 19th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Thank goodness your story has a happy ending! Your instincts were right on the mark, wow. Awesome blog, scrolled down to check out various products.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Your story gives me chills!! My son has a peanut allergy, too. A couple of months ago his allergist gave him peanut butter because she assured me he had outgrown it. Less than 5 minutes later her office called 911. He also got a trip on an ambulance. Needless to say, we switched allergists!!
Learning to live like this truly does get easier. Education is the key. The more you know, the more you can protect Martha. If you are interested, I started a blog recently for parents that have young children with a peanut allergy. The address is http://www.peanutallergykid.com.
By the way, you are so talented!! I am not good at all at the digisrapping. I do love to admire others that can do it. Martha is lucky to have these adorable pictures from her first birthday!!
August 19th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I love how God protected her…and how you guys have such a good attitude about handling her allergy. And hey, Milky Way doesn’t have nuts, so all is not lost, right?