Adventures in snow and allergies

Feb 19, 2014
Day 271

Adventures in allergies....

We've had a good run the last few weeks - no issues to speak of and we've gone up to 900 and today 1200mg of Walnut powder.  One of our buddies (thanks LK!) took a walnut half into their work lab to weigh it so we'd have a better idea of what we are "eating" vs a whole...  The one she weighed was 2.85 grams for a half. (But that's what most folks would call 1 walnut).  So he's up to over 1/3. :)  That's pretty amazing.  Now I still have no idea what would happen with a pecan or hazelnut, and don't intend to find out anytime soon!  But that's great progress...  "Life" insurance - right? We figured this is a 6 year adventure we're on, and we're not even at a year yet.

Our snow adventures were interesting.  The allergist ran low on the walnut powder again two weeks ago.  So the monday before the snowstorm (last week), they didn't have it yet.  Tuesday they had it but closed early b/c of the bad weather coming in (which didn't hit but I don't blame them for closing).  They've changed suppliers for their walnut powder, so maybe this will stop happening now?  I hope so, it causes a LOT of parental stress!  Wed morning they had planned to be closed but we called and caught them there and Daniel zipped over there to get the doses.  Then the 2" in 2 hours hit.  While everybody was trying to get home.  Daniel got stuck in the crazy traffic but thankfully was almost home when all the streets turned into parking lots.  He stopped at the local bank and walked the last bit home with the meds.  You do what you have to do, but on some level you have to laugh.  He came in covered in snow (much to my amusement).  Then thursday the preventative asthma inhaler ran dry and I had to venture to the drugstore (but could easily have walked it).  Why there is no counter on the QVAR inhaler I have no idea, but I'm going to email them.  We also set up an automatic refill on it and they will notify us when it's ready so that won't happen again.

The new walnut powder is coarser than the old, but we kept a very close eye on him for the first dose, and nothing seemed amiss.  He's been on that for the last week or so and it's going fine.

Cool stuff - Epinephrine and school stocking info - this is a pretty darn good article about epinephrine in general, why it's important, and legislation across the US to make it available for the 25% of emergencies that are unknown/new reactions in schools.  Right now depends on where you live if a school nurse or staffer could give your kid an epi shot without a prescribed dose for your child.  Kids have died because these laws weren't clear and epi was available (another child's Rx) and wasn't used.  Stock epi solves that problem.  (unprescribed epinephrine available in schools).  With the increase in allergies, this stuff should be in public places, just like heart defibrillators.  It is the ONLY thing that can stop an anaphylactic allergic reaction.  Now that we're about to enter public schools I'm seeing just how scary the lack of clear policies can be.  NC needs to catch up to the rest of the US and get some clear laws in place to allow stock epinephrine and to protect those that have to administer it.

Fun snow stuff - we finally got the kids skiing this weekend (in NC) - shockingly the conditions were awesome.  We've created two little ski monsters though!  We had no troubles with allergy stuff with ski school, but we had to be creative on how to keep epis in the temp range while skiing.  (inside backpacks under jackets for instance).  It all worked out.

Stay safe friends!

big kid school, free epi training, and allergy cards

Feb 4, 2014
Day 256

Allergies have been high in our minds the last few weeks - we've moved up to 600mg of walnut powder for the daily dose. Tomorrow we go to 700mg at the allergist. It takes a lot of time, but he's thankfully a very agreeable kiddo.  He gets a bag to take whatever toys he wants... and sometimes he entertains everyone with his costumes and antics. This was 2 weeks ago - my little protector!  I hope he stays this agreeable for the years we have of this in our futures!

The superbowl (and of course party with lots of food) - was a great success, and in no small part to the friends (our local family!) that helped make sure he was safe and that everyone knew not to give him food without a parent okaying it.  Our host/hostess sent us this photo of the "baked goods" end of the table before we even GOT to the party.  :)  We also had him wearing allergy alert stickers so that those folks that don't know him would know not to feed him.

In other news, we just signed him to start kindergarden in July where he will join his big sister at the local Elementary school.  EEK.  We are barely starting those conversations with the school, eventually the school nurse, the teacher (we don't know who yet), and the allergist.   It's a LOT of paperwork, planning, and thinking through what makes sense, how to approach people, and how to most importantly keep him safe.  We don't want to induce some crazy burden on the school, but we don't want them to ever need to inject him with an epi.  Heck, I don't want to ever have to inject him!  (again)
This is amazingly stressful to think about leaving the "nut-free" preschool world and having to depend on others (some of whom we will never know), to keep him safe, at an age where he can't quite protect himself (or read the labels).  We have been researching on the parents of kids with food allergy forums (you need to register), went to a 504 plan webinar (you can watch the video), and talking to teachers, other parents, and anyone with any experience in this area.  The allergist was surprisingly negative about a 504 plan (he said a health plan is fine).  Given what we've researched, we don't agree, but we will talk it out with patience and come in with humility to talk to the school.  It's not a demand list, it's supposed to be a discussion to decide how we can all keep him safe, and a document that details what we agree upon.  We have a health plan in place for our eldest, but her life is not in immediate danger if it's not followed.  We will plod slowly down this path and take lots of notes...  And I will try not to shake every time I talk to anyone at the school about leaving him there without his army of protectors.  Gotta let go sometime...

Other cool stuff...
-FREE (used to be a paid training!) Epinephrine/anaphylaxis training online.  This is pretty awesome.  If you have friends with food allergies, take the 20-30 min and do this.  You may have to save them one day, you need to understand what to do and when to do it.  And THANK YOU epi-kit for making it free!
1. Go to http://www.EpiPenTraining.com and click Sign Up.
2. Fill in the Registration Form and agree to the Terms & Conditions.
3. Click Sign Me Up. 
4. A box will appear confirming that your account was created and that you're logged in.
5. Click Continue.
6. Click Begin or Continue Your Training Course.
7. Click Start.

-Allergy cards for restaurants - we dug all over the place and these things are EXPENSIVE and you get two or three laminated cards that you need to remember to get back from the server each time.  We used vistaprint (just picked a business card template), and printed 200 for about $20.  We put his picture on it, and wrote it as a request from him to help keep him safe (people are more careful when they know it's a child that can't protect themselves).  Don't spend your $ on the fancy "allergy" cards.  You can print EXACTLY what you want and get far more of them online from anyplace that makes create your own business cards.  We put emergency info on the back including please don't hesitate to Epi if you see symptoms.  So far it's been VERY well received.  We decided to do this after reading the restaurant blog (see last post).

Much love to you all - it's sometimes a very carefully planned out world we have to live in, but we do it with the support of all of you!
Alli, Daniel, E and P