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As I've been doing more and more research about peanut allergies, as well as allergies in general, I've become more and more obsessive about it... I have it in my mind that the more research I do, the more safe my son is going to be and the more protected he will be from a possible reaction. His reactions in the past have been pretty bad.. Below are some pictures of his soy bean allergy. Just for your information, they rate a severity of an allergy on a scale from 1-5 (at least on this particular test we had, sometimes it's 1-6) and Grayson's soy allergy is a 1 (the lowest, but still an allergy) and his peanut allergy is a class 5 (high highest or worse..).
These allergy reactions happened with ranch dressing and.... Something else... I think barbecue sauce? Both of these contained soy bean oil, but NO NUTS. This is the reaction that happens with A CLASS 1 reaction with my son. My son has never actually EATEN a peanut, or a nut, or anything with peanuts at all. Ever. The only two times he's had a reaction to peanuts have been my fault.. Checking his mouth after him brushing his teeth (I had just eaten a PB sandwich, and I DID wash my hands) and another time, his FIRST reaction to peanuts, I had residual Reese's on my hands, and touched his face. I don't have pictures or documentation of those reactions, because honestly, I was freaking out, and driving to the ER. After showing the allergist the pictures of the reactions above, (the one on the bottom left, particularly) he said that he is having an anaphylaxis reaction to the soy bean oil, and that I was "lucky" it wasn't worse. Next time, he could go into anaphylactic shock JUST FROM THE SOY. (Because he has a rash above his neck, AND he's swollen.) Supposedly, if this were to happen now that I have the EpiPen, I would have o give it to him if he presented with this allergic reaction again. That is insane to me, and terrifying. Terrifying because that is just a class 1 allergy, and his peanut allergy is a CLASS FIVE. 0.0
After a lot of research it seems that you can't just base the reaction levels on the blood tests alone, but you also have to base it off of past reactions, as well as a skin prick test (SPT). We have a SPT coming up at our next visit. We will see how he does with that. We also are testing him for other allergies, and we will have the results of those tests as well. We are also going to come up with our plan of action for when he's being taken care of anyone besides myself. I have been stressing too much about this lately, and honestly I've not been sleeping well just in general, and this isn't making it better. I'm awake at night reading blogs and trying to educate myself as much as I can, trying to keep my son safe and alive. Halloween is tomorrow... Ugh. God, help me stay sane! I just want to go to the house ahead of time and give them stuff to give to my son, so he's not getting Snickers and Reese's in his candy bucket.
I'm beginning to understand the isolation that adolescents with a severe food allergy feel, because I am starting to feel the same way just trying to keep my son safe now, and he's not even in school, yet. And honestly, I'm considering NEVER sending him to school. There are too many stories about kids dying at school from an accidental exposure, even though the school took all the precaution they could.
This is scary. I'm scared. And Grayson doesn't even know what's going on. Which is even more scary.
I guess it's good that he's so into the EpiPen trainer device. "Try? Try?" Why yes, Grayson. You may try. Get familiar with it.. It's going to be your best friend for the rest of your life. =/
Much love,
Ashley
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