A Frantic Visit to the Doctor

I think that being mom to a peanut-allergic kid is going to be a lifetime filled with "is this a reaction?" moments. Or maybe I'll get used to it in a few years. I hope so.

Tonight after dinner, Ella started coughing like crazy. Then she started wheezing. Then I started freaking out. All we'd eaten for dinner was spaghetti (at home, and I never keep anything in the house that even has a "may contain" warning). So it couldn't be a peanut reaction.

Or could it?

There was no swelling, or hives, or vomiting, or anything else similar to her last reaction. But then again, peanut reactions are unpredictable and not necessarily the same every time. And she was definitely having trouble breathing. So what to do? EpiPen? 9-1-1?

We decided to go to the clinic. We would have gone to the ER, but the clinic is literally right around the corner, so we knew a doctor would be able to see her much sooner there. So I stayed at home (to take care of her little brother, who was still finishing his green beans), and daddy took Ella to the doctor. And I continued to freak out.

An agonizing 30 minutes later, they came home. Turns out it wasn't a peanut reaction. The doctor told us that true allergic reactions rarely involve only breathing symptoms - there are almost always skin symptoms, too, like hives or swelling.

What happened to Ella was, however, something. She was definitely have trouble breathing, so the doctor put her on a ventilator to help her breathe, with a steroid to open up her airways, and she was fine after that. 

So, what was the problem? Well, it could have been a freak one-time thing, but there's also a chance that she has developed asthma. We won't really know until it happens again. IF it happens again. We're believing it won't. Because the problem with a diagnosis of both anaphylaxis and asthma is that you are at a greater risk for a severe allergic reaction and even death. And I'm not sure I could handle any more anxiety than I already have...

A Peanut Allergy?!?!

I couldn't believe it when I found out Ella was allergic to peanuts. There was no family history, I had done everything I could think of to avoid this allergy, and yet, there she was, in the middle of the kitchen, throwing up and turning blotchy after taking her first bite of peanut butter. It was terrifying. It was something that I had feared, but not something that I actually thought would happen to my child.

Of course, we rushed her to a doctor nearby who told us, "She's allergic to peanuts. So don't let her eat them." Thanks, that was helpful. I made an appointment with our family doctor, who referred us to an allergist (an appointment we had to wait an excruciating 8 weeks for). The allergist did the scratch test, which confirmed that Ella was indeed extremely allergic to peanut. He taught me how to use an EpiPen, he gave me a brochure on anaphylaxis, and he sent me home.

But I needed more. I spent hours on the internet learning everything I could about anaphylaxis and peanut allergy. I read blogs. I read government publications. I read research studies. I thought the more information I had, the better able I would be to keep Ella safe. So then I went to the library. I read books. I watched DVDs.

But what I really needed wasn't more and more information. I needed to know that I wasn't alone in this. That there were other moms out there who were just as paranoid as I was. I found reading blogs to be really helpful, because along with the information, they spoke about how it feels to live with a peanut-allergic child.

So that's why I'm writing this. Because I'm sure you're out there, hoping to find someone who is going through the same thing you are. Well, here I am.