Living with Food Allergies, 2013 and on

[MaryM]

I am taking DD to Mt. Sinai today to talk to the therapist that specializes in families dealing with food allergies.  I am really hoping he can help lessen her anxiety.  If you met her, you would think she is totally fine but she tells me multiple times a day that she has XXXX symptom and looks for reassurance that she is ok.  She is also not really eating her lunch at school for fear that someone might cross contaminate it.  I witnessed her eating her safe food at a party recently and I almost cried as I watched her try to keep her food completely covered and safe from the other kids (who were not messy eaters).  Its going to be a long day of driving today.  If we make good time I plan to hit Fairway Market to pick up a few things.  Its a bit of a walk from the office but its not supposed to be bitter cold today.

[PurpleCat]

Good luck Mary!  Hope you get some good resources and that your DD likes the therapist.

[Macabre]

MaryM I hope this is helpful.  Poor kiddo.  This has got to be really hard. 

[spacecanada]

Best wishes, Mary.  Therapy can be incredibly helpful.  I hope your daughter will see some benefit from it.

[GingerPye]

I hope you come home today feeling like your DD is being helped .... some relief for you.   

[MaryM]

It was a very good appointment.  He gave us some things to try and talked to DD about facing her fears head on.  I liked his style.  He told us privately that her reaction is very normal and he thinks with more time she will be much better.  Totally exhausted but am making a quick meal and the. We are off to our first Middle School Info night with DS.

[GoingNuts]

Glad it went well Mary.  I hope she starts feeling more secure soon.

[Macabre]

Mary I am glad  ive been thinking about y'all today. 

[spacecanada]

That is great news Mary! It may take some time for your DD to really understand and put into play what the therapist said. It may take another visit or two, but fingers crossed she will feel more comfortable soon, so you can feel more comfortable too. Hurray for healing. <3

[PurpleCat]

Mary, that's great news! 

[spacecanada]

Printed, laminated, and posted new allergy action plans at home and work yesterday.  More paper copies in my EpiPen and Allerject carriers.  Somehow, adding a photo of me taken with Tinker Bell (who is cropped out) makes it almost exciting to see on the fridge every few hours.  Hey, whatever helps. 

Also, my husband and I had a conversation about how we should start saying 'anaphylaxis' instead of 'allergies' since there are so many people with allergies or that people assume food allergies have similar symptoms to seasonal allergies and really aren't as serious as they are. 

Tomorrow: creating signs to put up at work to visibly declare my office a nut-free and peanut-free room.  I hoped it wouldn't to come to this, but my psychologist and I agreed that it would do more good than harm considering recent events.  Anyone have any good phrasing to put inside a stop sign?  I'm thinking 'ALLERGY ALERT: Please do not bring items containing tree nuts or peanuts into this room.'

[PurpleCat]

spacecanada, is there a reason anyone but you has to eat in this particular room.  Can it become a food free room?  If others share your office, is there a common eating area for others to eat in?

Then your stop sign becomes a "NO FOOD" sign.

[YouKnowWho]

Not allergy alert - for the same reason you need to use the words anaphylaxsis vs allergy.

Anaphylaxsis Alert - No food allowed in this office.

[spacecanada]

Thanks, YKW, definitely using 'anaphylaxis' on the sign.  My coworker sometimes eats in the office (it's his office too) but lately he's been eating in the classroom instead.  I would like to make it so he cannot eat in the office, actually, since he sometimes has nutty things despite knowing about my allergy. 

I cannot safely eat anywhere else (unless I scrub the tables in the classroom), so making the office food free defeats the purpose to some extent.  And if I say 'food free' then I look like a hypocrite eating my own lunch in there, no?  Our doors are half-doors, and all the offices have windows, so it's not like I can close my door and eat where nobody can see me.

[hezzier]

Drove 2 hrs to an away swim meet, we were supposed to be there 2 nights, but Sunday's events got cancelled due to the incoming blizzard.  The food bag was bigger than my bag with my clothing in it.  I had packed extra food in case we had to stay an extra night due to snow.