Getting ready for preschool

Jack is finally potty trained at the age of 44 months. That is exactly 3 yrs 8 months old if you are too tired to figure it out. :) Well, now we can send him to preschool.
I just think I am not really ready to put his life in someone else's hands at the moment. Those people don't know my son like I do. They don't know that when he itches his chin, he is going to start coughing from his asthma and he needs a treatment sooner rather than later.
As I sit here thinking of it, I am not sure if I can prepare my son for the world, ever. It is a very emotional experience that is hard for moms of non food allergic children to appreciate. I feel anxiety about letting him go without me there. I feel extremely overprotective. I am the type of mom that lets my child experience things by letting nature take its course. I tell my child not to put their fingers in the door or they will get hurt. My son has chosen not to listen on a few occasions and gotten his fingers pinched. He listens now when I tell him that. I never viewed myself as overprotective. I dont think I feel comfortable being that. I view overprotective people as "Nervous Nellies" that just freak themselves out over the smallest things. I like to be calm and rational. But I don't feel calm and rational.
I know that we will overcome this hurdle in our life and many more in the future, but I didn't bargain for the incredible stress that comes with it. I try to keep things in perspective and remember the funny things about food allergies. Like when I was reading Jack a book called Allie the allergic elephant. Allie's mom carries her epinepherine kit and Jack asked me where was his epinephrine kit(last summer he did this!) Or when he pretends, he gives me ice cream and peanuts all the time for snacks. I just hope he stays as happy and positive as he is today. I thank God that we are healthy and alive.

Grocery shopping will never be the same.

So I finally bought a book about the food allergies. There are just too many variables going on here. A "friend" feels the need to argue with me about everything and she brought up a very interesting point. I was giving Jack pizza dough because he like it so much. He is so allergic to milk, that if you eat a dairy product and touch him, he gets hives. Well, what was I thinking that if I take the cheese off it was OK? He seemed to do Ok with it I guess. Looking back, he wasn't OK with it. He gets up each and every night still and I don't know why. It wears on the nerves a little. I find out that now, he can not eat anything at all from a restaurant. They just can not be trusted with a milk, egg, peanut allergy. There is milk everywhere, and if there isn't milk, then there is egg. I was making my own meatballs with store bought bread crumbs. The stupid bread crumbs have milk in them. I bought Jack some "Organic Crunchin' Blocks" and it has a kosher symbol with a "D" next to it. It doesn't list anything in the ingredients about milk, but somewhere lurking there IS indeed dairy. This is much harder than I anticipated. I find that I am getting increasingly jealous of all the mammas giving their babies yogurt, and milk and cheeseburgers. I wonder why people feel bad that he can't have ice cream. He doesn't even know what he is missing and probably wouldn't eat it anyway because he hates anything cold. I never really wonder "Why me?", but I do wonder if it will be that much harder in the years to come. I look at the world differently now. When people feel the need to touch my child, I want to say to them "What is on your hands? What have you eaten since the last time you washed? Could you please take this wipee and wipe your hands first." Of course, that isn't always reasonable. I wonder about the apples in store and the railing that he wants to touch. Not so much for the germs, but the particles of dairy that may cause him to have an anaphylactic reaction and force me to use my EpiPen. I am glad I bought the book. It is very helpful in getting these ailments under control like a constant stuffy nose and eczema, or just plain misery. On the other hand, I am in for a long, long, road! Thanks for reading!

Katrina, what have you done?

I am totally glued to my TV about the horror in New Orleans. I am ashamed for those people down there and feel so sad and heartbroken for them. I am extremely angry at the scumbags who feel the need to act like idiots and shoot at police officers and steal jewelry just because they can get away with it. You all should be shot and stolen from and raped and beaten. Let's give you a taste of your own medicine. I am so helpless here and feel like I need to be there helping get people off their roofs and help take care of the sick people. I wonder how many people in the hospitals have died already. How many allergic babies are in New Orleans and along the coast that aren't getting the hypoallergenic formula they need? We had a "Labor of Love" drive in my area. Some radio stations got together 2 huge 18 wheel semi trucks to drive down to Baton Rouge. They challenged everyone to donate food and water only and of course cash donations. As soon as the truck fills up, it will be driven south. They are filling up number 5 as we speak. Our grocery chain, TOPS, donated a semitruck full of food and water. I drove there and donated some Alimentum, diapers and water and other things. I just can't help but feel I am not doing enough for those poor people. The phrase that really got me was "There are now 1 million American refugees." My mother was a refugee from WWII. She was born Feb 1946 and lived in a camp for 5 years! They had no place to live for 5 freaking years! How do you continue to live after that? How did my grandma, after being stripped from her home, want to live with no family left? I am so spoiled and so is almost every American. I just hope after this tragedy, people can appreciate what they have.

Family time

I spent a day with my family this weekend. They certainly don't understand the FA. My mom is getting so much better about it. Her friend's granddaughter has them. I am grateful that she has someone to talk to about this because I am sure she would think I was "just being a hypochondriac" again. We went to the fair with my brother, his wife, her daughter and the wife's son's son(haha). Her grandson that is. Well, the daughter wanted to take Jack for a walk. I said sure. We were in bleacher stands watching a demolition derby. Mind you, there is food everywhere on the ground. Knowing that I have a human vacuum cleaner on my hands, I asked if she knew about Jack's FA. My SIL says no. My loving brother needs to make the comment, "Um I think she just got done eating Doritos too." Here is the background for the dumbass remark. Jack was in only a diaper and his older brother Josh is playing with him and tickling him. A few minutes later, I get Jack in the tub and notice that he is red where Josh was tickling him. I call Josh into the bathroom to show him what he has done and that he should not tickle him so hard. He acts so surprised and says "WOW, I am SOOO sorry" Then I notice there are hives in the red areas. I call Josh in again. "Let me see your hands" Sure enough, there is Dorito cheese all over his fingers. All I think is holy cow. The following week, I go and visit my husband at work. He works at his parents business which is behind their house. So lunch is in Mom's kitchen. It is a pretty nice setup if you ask me. While visiting, he holds Jack. I go grocery shopping and Josh notices hives on Jack's leg. "OK, here we go again." I get home and wash the area like last time. I put hydrocortisone cream on it and call my husband. He was eating cheese and crackers and didn't wash his hands. This is a pretty sensitive issue for me now. I am a bit paranoid about the food allergies. He is allergic to milk egg, and peanut. He is VERY allergic to peanut according to his skin and blood tests. I can't imagine if he found a peanut! And my insensitive brother has to make a sarcastic stupid comment about this. I wish he knew how stressful it is. In his defense, I have gotten over it now. It happened a few weeks ago and he was trying to make light of it. I wish I wasn't so quick to jump to conclusions.
I am also starting to think this blog is more about me learning about myself than Jack's food allergies.

A Simple Hello

I guess it is about time for me to get in touch with my irritating side. The one that noone wants to listen to anymore. The one that is constantly talking about Jack. I think people are sick of hearing about Jack. However, I am not sick of talking about Jack. Or his brother Josh. Josh isn't as exciting as Jack though. Josh goes on his merry way through life. He doesn't bother anyone. He stays away from trouble. He has no health issues like his little brother, except for that heart thing he has, tachycardia(rapid heartbeat), which requires some attention every now and then. He is an easy going individual. Unlike Jack. Jack is the definition of High Maintenance. I am not complaining here. I absolutely know that things could be worse. He just requires much more attention than I anticipated. You see, Jack has food allergies(known as FA from now on). He doesn't have as many as some other children. But he does have some. And they can be doozies. I have to carry a thing called an EpiPen Jr. for him wherever he goes. And I have to take Benadryl and hydrocortisone cream wherever he goes. I have to instruct our friends and family how to use this EpiPen. I have been introduced to an entirely new world. The world of FA.