October 30, 2012
The day our revolution began. James, 10, and I had dropped his friend off after a day at a museum. "My throat is itchy." The bag of hazelnuts was in his lap. I called my husband, "I think James is having an allergic reaction. I'm giving him Benadryl. I don't know what to do. Call Kaiser. I'm going to start driving to the nearest one."
Sneezing. Nosebleed (My car looked like a murder had taken place the next day). I can't tell, lips swollen? Eyes? Maybe. (When the reaction ended, it was clear to me they had been).
Kaiser puts a nurse on the line. "How's his breathing?" "James, can you breathe all right?" So low to answer. "Uh - huh." "Is that a yes or a no?" "I guess so."
45 minutes to the hospital, at 30 minutes, it was all over. It you have a child who has never had an allergic reaction and is having the symptoms, please call 911. We were lucky, but not everyone will be. I knew nothing about food allergies then.
October 25, 2014
We were waiting in the New York City office of Dr. Xiu-Min Li, renowned researcher of food allergies, ready to begin another another revolution, one based in hope.
This Blog
On this blog, I will share how we got through those two years, the research I did to go from the mom who didn't recognize a life-threatening allergic reaction to sitting in the office of one of the countries most respected allergy researchers in the country. I'll share the on-going research I do into the world of food allergies.
I'll document the ups and downs of a teen undergoing food allergy treatment and, with a little perseverance and luck, we will get to our next revolution, of beating back some of his allergies.
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