Home again, home again, jiggetty jig!

We're back in the great state of Illinois! Just in time to get some groceries before the winter weather advisory. :)

We had a successful and happy vacation by all accounts (meaning only the baby barfed that time we all got sick). But I would like particularly to highlight that in more than three weeks of vacation Levi had ZERO allergic reactions!  Thank you, thank you to all of our awesome relatives who made sure he didn't get any milk, eggs, peanuts or tree nuts! Your sacrifices were not unnoticed! I love you all!

While in Arizona this is the winter quote I thought of most often:

"During the winter my attention was attracted to the changes in the stars and planets in the sky." --Paul Nurse

Those AZ skies were clear and beautiful! Orion is my favorite constellation, and one night in particular he was huge on the horizon just when I walked outside. Gorgeous.

source:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(constellation)

Hooray! Allergy Test Results!

So remember how we went to have Levi's blood drawn and I nearly passed out? And the nurses only collected about 1/30 of the blood requested for the test? "Well, I'll send this in and see if they can do anything with it..." the nurse said rather hopelessly as we left.

Hooray! They did something with it! Our My suffering was not in vain! They did the "childhood allergy panel," plus carrots, because he had seemed to react to them a couple of times.

Milk

Peanut

Egg White

Walnut

Carrot

Fish

Shrimp

Soy

Wheat

Cat

Dog

Mold

Dust

It is so nice to know what we need to stay away from! All of the four that he tested positive for were at the "class 2" level. Personally I'm not certain what that means other than that his allergies are "moderate," but I'm sure I'll bring it up with the doctor soon. I think I would like to have him tested for sensitivity to other nuts -- a friend of ours whose young daughter has nut allergies suggested it, as they found the "nut panel" helpful.

See how the list of things he is NOT allergic to is so much longer? That is what has had me happy this week. For while there I hadn't mentally eliminated anything (except I was pretty sure about fish and wheat), so while the egg was our surprise culprit it was super nice to know we are okay on carrot, soy, dog and cat.

Speaking of allergies, this Halloween I will not be giving out the typical fun size candy bar (all of which I have found are processed on peanut equipment and include milk or egg, soy or nuts). We are giving out Halloween pencils and cute monster stickers! Hope you like them, kids!

We're going to take the boys trick-or-treating, but have some fun prizes for them to buy from us with their poison candy! Happy Halloween!

Recommended Reading on Food Allergies

I have just reviewed Food Allergies for Dummies over on Everead.

It is the book that brought me out of denial about Levi's food allergies.

We still don't have a full diagnosis for him -- oh good grief, we went in to have his blood drawn yesterday for the RAST test and I got wheeled out of the lab by a nurse. It was bad, me trying to watch his blood draw, and I have been forbidden to do it again. The nurse's exact words were "never, ever." (yay!) Juice, washcloths, wheelchair, blood sugar test, blood pressure taken three times, stuffed animal for Levi (who was an angel and did not cry either while he was being poked or while strangers had to hold him since his mom was about to pass out). We got the five star treatment.

Anyway, I can' say enough how important it is to educate yourself about food allergies. I'm  happy to answer questions you have, to the best of my ability.

Also, now that we can't feed Levi milk or peanuts (and maybe some other things too -- carrots? soy? walnuts? Unexplained reactions are one reason we went in for the RAST test...) what are your cookbook/food-lifestyle-book recommendations? What are your favorite vegetable recipes?

Thanks a mil,
Alysa

Confrontations with Mortality

Levi has food allergies. Serious food allergies. He is allergic to both milk and peanut on an anaphylactic level.

I remember seeing, several years ago, a Facebook friend flip out over her son's newly discovered peanut allergy.  At the time I thought to myself, "Okay . . . peanut is a very common allergy -- lots of people live good lives allergic to peanuts. What's the big deal?"

Now, I know.  For me, it was not so much to idea that he wouldn't be able to enjoy PB&J, (Tragic? Hardly.) but the knowing that something in particular could kill him. Confronting your infant's mortality is different from knowing that someday, something will kill us all: age, accident, disease. It was frightening.

In the time that has passed since our discovery of his allergies, I've been able to settle down a little bit.  Still, it's a game-changer. Sometimes it feels like he is allergic to everything, because I love dairy and nuts and am accustomed to using them liberally in my cooking. I've begun to realize that one can make foods taste good by the addition of spices, not just fats (haha).

Many things, in fact, have helped to alleviate my stress about this: We have a couple of Epi-Pens now, and that's a comfort. I remembered my own "Ah, he'll be fine" reaction to my friend's son's diagnosis, and that has helped. Also, amid all the scary things that you can find on the internet when you try to research food allergies, I found the lovely story of Morgan Smith at allergicchild.com. This is the kind of reassurance I was looking for -- anecdotal evidence of someone with food allergies living happily. In some ways I feel like the Lord has been preparing me to mother a food-allergic child for years. One of the best ways to avoid allergic reactions is to prepare one's own food. Many friends of mine in the past 5 years have been excellent cooks who have inspired me to increase my own culinary capacities (Ashley, Aislin, Amy, Susan, and April I'm looking at you ladies in particular, thank you).

So, here we go! Off on the same adventure as before, but with a new menu!