March

Dear all of us,

I'm not sure how March got here so fast and now it's half over. The 31st will be here before we know it.
On March 31,2009 my life almost took a tragic turn. My youngest ate walnuts that day and she could have died. I won't go into all of the details because on some days it's too much to talk about.
Almost 6 years later I do my best to keep March 31 as a positive day. It's the day she didn't leave us.
That's something to celebrate!

Love Remembers

Today is a day set aside for remembering those that have been lost to anaphylaxis. It's so important but so very, very sad.
I find it amazing that today is the day to remember those lost to anaphylaxis because today is the day that my house was hit by anaphylaxis.
My daughter at the time was 3 1/2. She ate walnuts. She turned red. She was lethargic. She was zoned out. She was coughing and wheezing. It was an awful sound. That day is burned in my brain for ever. I will always remember the sights of that day, the sounds too. It's like it was happening in slow motion. I remember everything that was said, everything that we did.
By the grace of G-d she made it through.
It's hard to believe that this awful day was 5 years ago.
How horrible my life would be if she didn't make it......
Hug your kids tight and think of those lost today.

Skin test results

Well, today was the day. We woke up and had a nice breakfast, sent her older sister off to school and we headed to the Dr. We chatted about her medical history etc. Then it was time for her to get poked. They wrote on her skin (that cracked her up). They tested her for apple, applesauce, walnut, birch pollen, the control and the histamine. She said it hurt but she barely flinched and no tears. Much easier than the blood test. They test for birch because that cross pollinates with apples. We waited the 15 minutes and saw hives at the control, the histamine, and the walnut. We were right. Still no eating of tree nuts here. The control is not supposed to react so she has been diagnosed with dermatographism. That's very sensitive skin. To confirm the diagnosis the Dr. ran a wood stick (the medical kind not one from outside) along her arm and she turned red from that. Unreal........
She did not react to the apple, applesauce, or the birch. The Dr. said that we could food challenge the apple and sauce today. Little one did not want to eat the apple today so we will push that off to summer. She did eat applesauce today and she passed. She's a very happy camper.
She has had a nice dose of benadryl. Her arms look so much better already. She's now relaxing on the couch watching Brave.
She picked where we will eat out tonight, Moe's. Yummy! Strangely enough it's right next door to Sweet Frog. I see frozen yogurt in our future.

Test results

Well, two weeks to the day we got the test results. It's taken me a few days to get my head straight. So, here we go. The results are good. Her numbers are low enough that the Dr. wants to skin test. That is the next step in the process. If she breaks out in hives from the test then we are done and we carry on as we have been for the past four years. If she does not break out then we will schedule food challenges. This means going back into the office for every tree nut and apples too. She will eat increasing amounts. The amounts increasing about every 20 minutes or so unless there is a reaction, in that case the food challenge is over. I can't let myself look too far ahead. I need to just keep my eye on Monday. One test at a time. I can't let myself think ahead to watching her eat walnuts. They almost killed her four years ago. How do I let her eat them? What if all her allergies are gone? We go back to a normal life. What is a normal life? I don't even remember what it's like.
Oops...just got ahead of myself.
Lets get through Monday first. Fingers crossed.