Saturday, June 28, 2008

Moan, groan, boo.

As if Canaan weren't having a hard enough time already, his yesterday stunk too.

Before I tell you what happened, I have to tell you that my friend Lynette is most vigilant about Caris' peanut allergy. Her home is completely safe for Caris - so much so that she literally locks her peanut butter inside a cabinet so that no one will accidentally get it out when Caris is around, and she's even been known to bleach her counters after making pb&j for her own kids, even when we're not around. She gets how dangerous this peanut allergy really is.

So Canaan was hanging out with us in the music center since he hates the nursery and also because a bad stomach bug was making its rounds through the VBS kids and I didn't want him in there exposed to that. Lynette busted out a granola bar and read that it may contain traces of peanuts, and I told her it was still ok to give Canaan a piece. I have given him things a couple times that may have been exposed to nuts or whatever and he's been fine, though I haven't given him flat-out peanut stuff before. A few minutes after he ate a tiny piece, his face started to look red and splotchy. I started to feel a little bit of fear brewing - what if he's allergic to nuts too? What if he's coming down with this awful flu? Lynette read the granola bar package again and said, "Oh Emily, it has peanut flour." So now she's feeling bad about this, and it completely was NOT her fault. I gave her the go-ahead on it.

When we got home I gave him some Benadryl and put him down for a nap. The rash looked about the same when he got up, so I started to think it might be a virus. I gave him another dose before our evening VBS program. By the time the program was over, the rash not only looked the same on his face, it had spread to his arms and the back of his neck. When we got home I called the nurse line through our insurance, and the nurse asked me a million bajillion questions and finally determined that it was probably an allergic reaction and we better call our doctor for a treatment plan. I did, and he told us to go immediately to an urgent care or emergency room. I found an urgent care still open (we made it less than 10 minutes before they closed, bless their hearts) and the doctor there looked him over. He said, "It's an allergic reaction." I told him what he'd eaten and he said yes, to just keep an eye on him, keep giving him Benadryl every 6 hours, that it will take 2-3 days for the allergen to leave his system and that if he develops difficulty breathing we need to call 911 or head to the emergency room.

So anyway, when we got home I went right to bed and took him with me - who could put their child in a crib in the next room over when he might start to wheeze at any moment and need emergency care? I thought I wouldn't sleep one little bit, I was so worried about my baby. I did finally go to sleep though, and guess what I woke up to at 1 am? THUMP. My baby fell out of the bed. The very high bed. Onto the hardwood floor.

He cried, of course, but stopped quickly once we laid back down and nursed. He fell asleep within minutes. I, however, laid there freaking out. Completely freaking out. My heart was going crazy, I was having trouble breathing, my chest was tight - oh my gosh. I remembered what my counselor told me last year when I was having so many panic attacks and started deep breathing and letting my body relax. I was able to calm down and go back to sleep, this time with my arm *around* the baby, but man. I don't know. This week was awesome but it was a lot of work, and coupled with these things that keep on happening to Canaan, it was just all too much.

Canaan still has the rash today. I don't WANT to be dealing with this again. I don't WANT my child to have to be careful and worried and singled out due to his allergy. Alif, on the other hand, took it in stride. "We're already aware of how to handle this. We're already a peanut-free home." He's a good voice of reason, but I'm still bummed. I will ask the doctor on Monday to call in a RAST test to determine whether it really was the peanut flour that caused this.

If you feel like praying for my son, I would really appreciate it!!

7 comments:

  1. Oh poor BUDDY! Emily I am SO sorry. It's crazy- we were praying for our church and all the VBS workers. Do you think some of this could be spiritual attack? I mean man, God was probably doing SO much in so many that you were ministering to this past week. I'm gonna pray for God to protect your precious family and completely clear up whatever is going on with a possible allergy!

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  2. ((((Emily & Canaan))))
    You need a do-over for this week. Hang in there mama. I pray he isn't allergic to nuts.

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  3. Poor Canaan! I know how the nut allergy goes. I'm allergic to all kinds of nuts and sunflower seeds. That basically rules out all granola bars for me. :( Stephen has a lot of allergies too, just not to any foods. I'm going to have to be really careful introducing our little one to those things.

    Also, thanks for your words of encouragement on my blog yesterday. I'm getting over it, but at first I felt like my ability to be a good mom was in question.

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  4. Oh Emily, Poor Canaan, poor you! YIKES, but at least the allergy will be handled. As far as falling out of the bed, we have the things on the side of our bed and Aubrey still has fallen out. It's like she finds the one little corner where the guard isn't. They survive us, I guess!

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  5. Hi - I'm a mom with a 9 year old with a peanut allergy who surfed in via google alerts. "Peanut flour" is basiclly powdered peanuts, so it wouldn't be unusual for your son to react. It's hard to tell with labels sometimes whether the manufacturer really means it, so if it says "peanut" or "nut" we find it easier to avoid.

    If you'd like to talk with other families dealing with food allergies, you can check out this message board - it's been a great help to me.

    www.foodallergysupport.com

    It sounds like you also have a great support network already. Your lucky to have so many people looking out for you. :-)

    Best wishes!

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  6. poor baby, and poor you! I'm so sorry to hear you've had such a difficult time of it lately. I would have been in tears many times over, for sure.
    But what a great momma you are-- taking the steps needed to protect your little one no matter what that means.
    I'll definitely pray for you guys. And I hope this week is MUCH better!! :)

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  7. Oh my goodness, Emily! I'm so sorry Canaan's (and you!) had such a rough week. I will be sure to be extra careful about nuts next time you come to visit! How scary!

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