What Came First the Chicken or the Egg?

When my husband and I were researching in the beginning regarding the allergies we read that on rare occasions kids who were allergic to eggs could become allergic to chicken and that children allergic to milk could become allergic to beef.

About a month ago our son refused to eat any beef or chicken put before him. He used to love chicken soup and all of a sudden, or so it felt, he wouldn't swallow any of it. We recently had our little guy tested for more allergies by his new allergist. Everything in his diet was tested, in an attempt to find the root of our son's vomiting and such. Unfortunately, we didn't find that answer but along the way we got a confirmation that the reason he was refusing those foods was because he was allergic to beef and chicken as well as turkey. Our little man was one of those rare cases who's allergies to both milk and eggs led him to be allergic to the animals that produced them.

The bright side of it is that he doesn't have the same anaphylactic reactions.

We Would Have Known the Triage Nurses

When we left the allergist the first time they told us that if our son gets a reaction we should first give him benadryl watch to see if the reaction subsides and if it does not to do anything more. They told us only if we feel the benadryl isn't working should we proceed to administer the Epipen and than take him directly to the ER.

When we went the second time the doctor asked us about his reactions. We told her he was having one every other day at that point, but that we did what we were told. We also told her what the reactions were like, at which point she informed us that we were lucky that nothing had happened to him and that in fact anytime he had an anaphylactic reaction, were two systems were involved, we needed to give him the Epipen and go to the ER. Had we done this we would have known the triage nurses and been at the ER half of our lives. Of course knowing that that's what would have happened had we first been told correctly how to handle the situation we would have gone every time. Nevertheless, we were given false information at first which interestingly enough was later corrected by the same doctor.

Since then we have altered our life style completely in order to protect our son and make sure that he doesn't need to go to the hospital every other day.

It's Just a Dog!

We were tipped off a few days ago that we needed to check our dogs' foods to see if either of them contained egg or dairy. Both my dogs are on different foods for different reasons. Dougal (our boy dog) was easy we saw his contained egg powder and found a replacement for him that wouldn't be a problem the same day. Vashti (our girl dog) was another story entirely.

We had thrown out her bag (we put their food in buckets) so I needed to go and find her food in the store. This in itself isn't the easiest as the dog is on prescription food for urinary tract infections. Sure enough when we found the food the stuff had eggs in it. So I had to go searching through all of the 6 choices we have. Thank goodness they make some in dry and wet choices. One and only one of the 6 is ok for our dog. When I went to buy the can however, they wouldn't let me buy it because I didn't have prescription on me. I tried to explain to the vet on site at the pet store that our dog has this condition of urinary infections but at the same time my SON has deadly allergies to egg and milk. I pleaded with them to let me buy the can and write a note that said I release them from any medical liability they have. For goodness sake it's just a dog! No go. They refused to let me buy the food. In the end my dog has to eat the bad food for her until we get to the vets on Monday. There is no question for me dog's urinary infection is less important than my son's anaphylactic reactions.

Anaphylaxis and Anaphylactic Shock

My son has never gone into an anphylactic shock; that being said he has had an anaphylactic reaction. Anaphylactic shock is the most severe reaction to an allergy and is probably the one people initially associate with anaphylaxis. Thus when my son's body became swollen, he had hives all over his body, he was throwing up, and he was sneezing and coughing I didn't think my son was having an anaphylactic reaction. I knew he was having an allergic reaction and of course called the doctors. A nurse from the Children's hospital called me and told me just to give him benadryl and the reaction would go down but I didn't have to come in to the ER.
Now I know that I should have rushed him immediately because even though he wasn't in shock he was experiencing anaphylaxis. According to my Allergist any time more than one system (ie. hives and throwing up or hives and sneezing) is effected by the reaction the person is having an anaphylactic reaction and should be administered benadryl followed by an Epipen and then taken to the ER.
According to National Jewish the following are symptoms of Anaphylaxis:

• Increased trouble breathing
• Coughing
• Chest tightness
• Wheezing
• Dizziness
• Fainting
• Rapid weak heartbeat
• Swelling in the mouth and throat
• Trouble swallowing
• Flushing
• Itching
• Hives
• A feeling of warmth
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Stomach Cramping

My son also experienced swelling which is not on the list, however, my allergist and pediatrician considered that another symptom.
If you would like to know more about Anaphylaxis click on the link to National Jewish Hospital: http://www.nationaljewish.org/disease-info/diseases/allergy/about/conditions/anaphylaxis.aspx#symptoms

There Goes My Husband's Beard

Before my son was diagnosed with allergies my husband and I used to joke that he should never go with out his goatee and mustache. He had grown during college when he started working in the corporate world in order to appear older. Without the beard he looked like he was 15. After college he kept it up because he was managing a lot of people that could be his parents' age and it just made it easier to appear older than he was. One time he screwed up and had to shave it off and I agreed whole heartily that he shouldn't ever remove it because he looks so young. I also thought at the time he looked better with the facial hair.

After our son was diagnosed with the allergies my husband decided to shave it off for good. He was concerned that food would get stuck in the goatee and mustache (as it usually did) and then if he went to kiss our son or if our son was playing with his chin or face that some of the allergen could cause an anaphylactic reaction.

Now my husband is free of facial hair and we don't have to worry about our son getting hurt from Daddy's face.