Living With a Peanut Allergy Sufferer.
Posted: Saturday, March 19, 2011
by Elfreda Eriksen
When my son was diagnosed at an early age with a nut allergy, I did not understand the implications, until one day, soon after the diagnosis, I was standing in the newsagents at the counter buying a paper.
A news headline stood out at me like a sharp dagger in the heart. It read "28 people die of peanut allergy this year." What the hell...! What do they mean DIE of the peanut allergy? The doctor hadn't said anything about the fact the allergy could be fatal. I froze and looked at the head line again in disbelief and rushed home as quicky as I could to ring and make an appointment with the doctor. I must have sounded in a right old panic because the receptionist let me come up to see the doctor within half an hour. I explained to the doctor what I had read and that I needed some kind of emergency kits asap for me to have ready at home should it be needed. Eventually I was given adrenaline, but not as an epipen, they weren't invented back then, but as a syringe! Of all the people to handle a syringe, I must have been the most unsuitable. I hated needles myself! I practiced copious times sticking a needle into an orange to get the feel of how to do it in emergencies.
When my son went to parties I went with him and bought him his own food and drink. Eventually I met another mother whose son also had the allergy and she was more experienced than me so this was somewhat of a relief.
The frustration that built up inside me as a mother was huge, seeing other kids eating ice cream and not allowing my son one because of possible nut ingredients. Even when things did begin to be marked there wasn't one ice cream that didn't say may contain Nuts. I literally wanted to go into the store and throw all the ice cream and other nut containing products out of the fridges, the frustration was that great.
And of course it was difficult not allowing my son to see my anxiety as I am sure he must have felt the same.
When my son was fifteen we went for our first meal out together as a family, I was very anxious but tried to hide it for his sake. I would have a habbit of looking at his lips for any signs of swelling and he would say stop staring at me mother I fine! Well that meal was a memorable moment and a break through for our family.
Another thing that was caused by anxiety in the early days was that I constantly washed my hands worrying about possible cross-contamination, of foods that I was not sure about and that might contain nuts.
Now my son is away at sea and he is coping with it all himself in a very logical way. With the increasd awareness of the alergy in the public and with food manufacterers, life has been made a lot easier. But even though he is gone, I still won't eat peanuts or any nut products, even though I'm not allergic to them myself. They have caused so much stress and anxiety for so many years, I couldn't possibly. My husband brought a pack of nuts home a few weeks ago and I immediately hid them and told him this is still nut free zone! The after effects of caring for someone will last the rest of my life.
I wonder if any of you SearchWarper have similar experiences being the mother or father of an allergy sufferers.
This Article has been viewed 520 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.