Allergies and Asthma..

In December of 2008, we confirmed our suspicions that Annslee has a peanut and tree nut allergy. Shortly after Halloween of 2008, I had made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and was carrying it in one hand and Annslee on the opposite hip. She reached out and grabbed it as I sat down in the recliner; I grabbed it from her before she ingested any of it. At this time, we didn't know about her severe allergy to peanuts. I don't know what compelled me to take it from her and not let her eat it...but I remember clearing telling her "you can't eat that." I think it was more her age but I thank God daily I didn't let her eat it! Her reaction that happened just minutes later could have been much, much more worse! I washed her hands and sat her down in her swing because it was getting close to her nap time but as I continued to eat my sandwich while keeping a close eye on her. I noticed that she was rubbing her right eye like crazy and at first I shook it off as fighting her sleep. After I finished my sandwich, I went to get her out of her swing so I could rock her to sleep and I was immediately terrified! The right side of her face was swollen and her eye was red! I immediately swooped her into my arms and dialed my mom with my free hand. When she answered, I quickly went over what had happened and listened as she tried to calm me down. It wasn't working. She asked, "Is she still breathing?" I replied, "She is but I'm not." Luckily, we didn't live to far from each other and she hung up telling me she'd be right down and for me to find something, anything I had that contained an anti-histamine. Thank God, she had just been prescribed a medicine for her runny nose earlier that week! Before we found it was allergies, she was also sporting a snotty nose and very rough skin. I quickly read the ingredients and said a quick Thank YOu pray to God that I had something in the cabinet with anti-histamine in it. I gave her a dose and then went outside to tell her daddy what happened while we waited for nana to get there. The swelling subsided a little bit after the first dose of medicine. Mom got there and confirmed my worst fears...she was most likely allergic to peanut butter...which meant a allergy to peanuts. Ours lives did a complete 360 that day! We had to go through the cabinets and throw out all peanut products, peanut butter and all things that could contain peanuts. It must have been a weekend afternoon because I remember not being able to call the doctor to set up an appointment until the next day.

We saw Karen first thing the next day and was given a prescription for an epi-pen. She taught us how to use it and set us up an appointment at Children's Allergy Clinic. We left with many questions running through our minds but knew the answers would have to wait until Dec when we went to her appointment at Children's.

It felt like December would never come but when it did come my nerves were off the charts! We spent ALL day at the allergy clinic doing a full work up with Annslee. I was very thankful it was during Christmas break. They did a skin prick test, drew blood from Annslee and we talked to several different doctors and a nutritionist. They were very thorough and answers any questions we had and taught us way more than we were prepared to learn. Peanuts, eggs, fish, wheat, and cats came up positive on the skin prick test! That has got to be the worst form of torture out there! We laid her down on her stomach, held her down as they pricked her back 17 times!! Afterwards, I held her close and sang lullaby's in her ear as she slowly drifted off to sleep. Once the test was ready to read and they told us her long list of allergies, they went over what to avoid, how to read labels and mostly importantly, what to do if she should be exposed to any of the above allergies.

Most people think it's easy to avoid peanuts. I am here to tell you.. IT IS NOT. It is in everything. We were instructed to avoid foods that said "may contain," or "manufactured/processed in same facility," or "contains." They were very thorough but I can say you until you have actually put yourselves in the "shoes" of a person allergy to all the above things, you can't really understand how hard it makes life. They did tell us that since she had had catfish without any reactions that we could still feed this too her in moderation. OH, how wrong they were! Below are some pictures of the only time we have had to make a trip to the ER. I picked her up from mamaw's and they had fixed some fish and, again, thankfully, she had just touched it. She broke out in a small amount of hives when I picked up...I dosed her with Benadryl, left Addison with mamaw and papaw because I had to run some errands and decided to take Annslee with me. Once we got to Marshall's work in Pine Bluff, she was in and out of it and the hives were worse..we took her straight to JRMC and went right back! They gave her another dose of Benadryl by mouth and when that made the rash WORSE, they put in an IV and gave her a dose of steroids through it. It immediately started clearing up. After about 3 and 1/2 hours, we were on our way home! She had to take a steroid for the next 7 days to avoid a relapse. We were just thankful she was alright!

Life has gotten much easier since we found out what to avoid and what not to avoid. We started going to Calvary Baptist church in November of 2009 and are VERY thankful for our church family. Everybody has made it so much easier for us to come to church and enjoy ourselves without worrying that someone was going to feed her something she couldn't have. It is a day to day struggle because things at restaurants and grocery stores can change over night....but we are just thankful to have our little girl with us...and otherwise she is happy, healthy, flourishing little girl!