Anyway, we took the boys to Costco after their swim lessons to do our monthly stock-up. To the boys it's all about the "snack ladies". We were making the rounds, munching here and there as we approached the last snack stop before the registers. I went to grab a bouquet of flowers for my nieces' dance recital later that afternoon while Scott grabbed two huge chocolate covered walnuts for the boys.
Five minutes later, while checking out in line, Sean was in tears about us not buying him the Lego book he saw aisles ago. Tragic, I know. Suddenly, his crying turned into all-out hysterics. His tune changed from the book to his mouth hurting. I checked the roof of his mouth assuming he cut it on the nut or that maybe a piece was stuck in his throat. Of course, a four year old can't quite articulate what the problem is more than his mouth hurt. I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. We tried our best to calm him down, gave him water, but nothing helped.
He was coughing, making sounds like he was trying to hack something up (rather loudly, I'll add), sobbing, and causing a huge scene all while trying to maneuver the check-out at noon on a Saturday at Costco. Scott insisted we grab lunch at the food counter and that maybe eating something would help. There were no open picnic tables, so luckily a woman let us sit with her. Although, I'm sure she regretted that once she witnessed Sean's continued meltdown.
I'm going to be honest. We had no clue what was going with him. We were concerned, but figured he was tired, ready for lunch, and would get over whatever was upsetting him. We didn't make the connection that what he was experiencing was an allergic reaction to the walnut he ate. At 4.5, there had been maybe one other incident (now that we think about it and analyze it that was a reaction as well that included coughing and vomiting after eating a pistachio in the middle of a wedding reception that Scott and I were standing up in), but we assumed we avoided the food allergies with Sean. We were very wrong.
And we were very wrong to attempt to eat lunch and stay at Costco. He was so upset and continued to make unusual sounds so we quickly wrapped up our food to go and hit the road to go home. I called the on-call pediatrician as we drove, texted a friend with a son who has a food allergy, and hoped that this would subside. The nurse told us to give him benadryl and take him to the ER. By the time we got home and gave him the benadryl, he had stopped coughing and "hacking". He had moved on to the sneezing and runny nose phase. We couldn't tell how much the congestion had to do with him crying for so long, so we played the waiting game. If the benadryl didn't improve his condition in 20 minutes, we'd head for St. Joe's in Ann Arbor.
He insisted he wanted a nap. Poor guy was so worn out from the whole situation. We let him lay down and we checked on him every 15 minutes. By the time he woke up, he was back to normal. Congestion was gone, coughing was gone, and he was perky and back to himself. That following Monday, I made a call first thing to the allergist to schedule a scratch test. After all, Mama knows best. Scott assumed he swallowed the nut down the "wrong pipe". But, I knew better. This was so out of the ordinary for him.
We were relieved at how soon the allergist could schedule him in. This past Wednesday, I took a half day, picked up Sean and made an afternoon out of it. We grabbed his favorite (Panera!) and stopped at Target for a few things before the appointment. I explained what would happen so he was totally prepared. I figured Panera lunch and a Target shopping trip (another favorite of his) would butter him up...
Clearly I'm a sucker. He also managed to get a Lego package out of our Target trip. In my defense, we were warned that the appointment could take 1-3 hours. I needed some entertainment. And it was a great idea! He built the set while we waited to see the doctor and it kept him occupied while I spoke with the doctor about his health history.
The doctor declared he has a tree nut allergy before we even did the test. He said he would be shocked if it didn't turn out that way. There's two misconceptions with allergies in kids:
1. We assume they will get hives or visible swelling.
2. We assume they are struggling to breathe only if they are gasping for air or panting.
Apparently, Sean's reaction in Costco was a pretty serious reaction. One that should have merited a call to 911. Parent of the year award right here.
We did the test anyway and also tested him on a few environmental ones too. Environmental was on the right, nuts were on the left and the bottom 2 were the controls. It's very clear, after only a minute, that nuts were an issue.
After 5 minutes, he could sit up. The hardest part at this point was keeping his hands occupied so he wouldn't itch the spots. He was completely freaking out. I don't blame him.
The doctor came in and confirmed what we already knew. Tree nuts are a no-no. His worst reactions were to cashews and pistachios. In fact, he tested negative to walnuts - the thing he ate at Costco. He also tested a slight positive to peanuts, even though he can eat peanut butter. We are going to do some blood work in a few weeks since we were told that since his reaction was only two weeks ago it can cause false negatives. For now, our plan is to avoid all tree nuts and raw peanuts. He can continue on with peanut butter, but we will be very cautious with reading labels on things like cereals and granola bars (two of his favorite foods).
We left with a prescription for EpiPens (scary...), a folder on food allergies, a script for blood work, and a script for Evan to have an allergy test sometime this summer to rule things out for him. And just like that, Sean's life has changed. We are to take the EpiPen with us everywhere. We need an allergy action plan for daycare/school. And we need to train his Nana and Grandma and anyone else that will be a caregiver to Sean on how to administer an EpiPen (worse case-scenario).
I'm confident that as we adapt our routines slightly with this news, that we can keep Sean safe and healthy as he has been for the most part. It doesn't hurt to educate ourselves on food allergies and to create an emergency plan. My biggest fear, as I'm sure it is for most parents of kids with food allergies is not right now in our life, but for when he's old enough to make his own decisions with food. I pray that he'll be knowledgeable enough on reading labels and his limitations so that he can make the best choices. I pray that we'll/he'll (as he gets older) not become lazy about bringing the EpiPen with him. I pray that we never have to be in a situation like we were in Costco where we have to decide on how to react. Knowing what we now know, I will not take his symptoms lightly.
In two short weeks, I've learned. I've grown. I've changed as a parent. Parenting is the hardest, most challenging, most rewarding thing I've ever done. Just when things seem like they're getting easier, we get a quick reminder that this is a life-long journey. One that will not always be peachy. But, one that will challenge us to become the best we can be as mothers and fathers, with whatever comes our way.
Good thing he's not allergic to chocolate...
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