| It’s Just Too Exciting – I Have to Share! Posted: 09 Jan 2012 06:21 PM PST  - photo source: topfer
I had a post scheduled for today – a delicious and perfect-for-winter twist on my 1-2-3 Granola! recipe – but life intervened and instead I have something totally different to share with you. Earlier today, I was sitting in the waiting room at the allergist’s office, periodically checking my Certain Little Someone’s face for hints of hives or swelling or redness. Listening to his breathing for any sign of a wheeze. Glancing up regularly from my word puzzles to make sure he was feeling OK. And as I sat there, scenes from his infancy came unbidden to my mind, memories I rarely – if ever – dare to uncover, because of the deep emotions they stir. - Scene 1: My Certain Little Someone, sitting in his little Bumbo seat, eating scraps of a piece of deli turkey meat. I was so desperate, trying to find foods that were safe for him to eat, that I didn’t care what they were or where they came from. I just wanted food that was safe for him and easy for him to eat. I was so worn out from staying up all night with him because he couldn’t sleep with the terrible itch the eczema gave him that I had very little energy to spend in cooking up all kinds of healthy baby food from scratch. I was depressed because being on his diet made me hungry, irritable, and mad. And just depressed. So there he was, sitting in his Bumbo seat, when hives began to spread across his face and down his neck. He began to cry, and scratch at the offending itch, and then I noticed the faint wheeze in his breathing, although I couldn’t really face the reality of it yet. I was just too scared. I called my DH in a panic, not sure exactly what to do, this being his first honest-to-goodness allergic reaction. My DH felt trapped at work, but longing to help me out in some way, he sent his brother (it was his day off) and his brother’s wife to come and stay with me until I was calm again. I fearfully gave my Certain Little Someone his first ever dose of Benadryl, and anxiously held my breath and tried not to cry while I waited for it to work. I had an epi-pen but I most certainly didn’t want to use it. Ever. Gradually, as I watched, the hives began to fade and disappear, while his breathing became clearer every minute. In my rattled state, it took me a while to figure out exactly what had caused the reaction. The slice of turkey he had been eating was bought at the deli counter, where they sliced it on the same machine they used to slice all the other meats they sold. Beef. Cross-contamination.
- Scene 2: Still a fairly new mom, juggling her baby and her groceries, trying to use the self-check while holding a wiggly infant in one arm. His hand swiped across a package of meat as I scanned it. I thought nothing of it until we got out to the car, and I saw that his entire hand and wrist were covered in hives. The severity of his allergy almost brought me to my knees, and most certainly brought me to tears. He had only touched the outside of the package! The package of beef.
- Scene 3: Enjoying some fellowship with family at a fast-food restaurant (why, yes, I do sometimes eat at fast-food restaurants). Empty sandwich wrappers were sitting on the table within reach of my Certain Little Someone, whose go-go gadget arms wasted no time in grabbing them for his entertainment. We watched him play with the piece of paper, enjoying his joy, and worrying only about whether he would try to bite it and choke on it, never thinking of the deeper danger that lurked. Until we got home, and saw the hives, once again covering his face and making him itch. Beef. Again.
But it’s the scene today that I want to remember for the rest of my life. The one I will treasure in my heart and mind. The one I will not hesitate to uncover and remember whenever I need to remind myself again of the goodness of my God. - Scene 4: Daddy, Mommy, and our Certain Little Someone, sitting in the waiting room at the allergist’s office, across from a huge tank full of tropical fish. Mommy is doing word puzzles, Daddy is reading a magazine, and our precious little one is keeping very busy with the bag of tricks we had brought along. Reading books, playing with cars and trains, carefully (or not so carefully) placing stickers of his hero Lightening McQueen into his well-used sticker book, listening to stories on the smart phone. Every now and then, we ask him to look at us. “Any itching?”, we say. “Are you breathing OK?” Each time, his response, which came quicker and quicker with every repetition, a sturdy, “I feel well.” “I feel well“, he said. And you know what he had just eaten? A whole slice of roast beef.
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