Five! You have had five reactions recently that have made me scratch my head, lose sleep and ultimately come to no conclusion as to how on earth these could have occurred. There was no food eaten within one to two hours of the reactions. The foods that were eaten I fed to you again after the reaction to ensure a new allergy did not develop or there was no cross-contamination. No reactions.
I continue to scratch my head and lose sleep. I have tried identifying patterns during these reactions. A few things come to mind. Majority occurred after exercise or when a big shift in temperature occurred. But you exercise all day everyday and there are temperature shifts all the time. Hmm, well that is all I have come up with. Wait, there seems to be another pattern, the reactions have also occurred in spaces that are carpeted, four of which were not in our house. I have always correlated these reactions to trace amounts of allergens on hands that somehow ended up in your nose or mouth. Maybe it's something else. Maybe it's not. After doing some digging - maybe it's asthma. Something in the environment you are allergic to and then it is set off by exercise or shifts in temperature.
And now, another reaction, this time, sudden and constant coughing and then wheezing. No vomiting this time. I give two puffs of the inhaler meds that Hopkins prescribed after discussing the recent reactions. The wheezing quickly subsides and the coughing slows. After 15 minutes the coughing dissipates. Could this be that these reactions that mimic food allergic reactions are actually asthma attacks?
ASTHMA - so scary as a parent of a child with many severe food allergies. Why though? Virtually ALL of the deaths that occur from food allergic reactions are in people that also have asthma. And now we may be in the food allergic and asthmatic bucket. Having asthma and controlling it either with functional medicine or conventional medicine is manageable and seemingly not that scary so long as you recognize symptoms and treat it. When you layer on food allergies, it suddenly becomes something else.
So why are the people that have fatal food allergic reactions asthmatics? I can say every one of these five reactions mimics the beginning of food allergic reactions. Sneezing, coughing, wheezing, vomiting - that's how it all starts. So at that point in the reaction, if I guess it's airway distress due to asthma and give the inhaler, and I guessed wrong and we lose time, valuable precious time, that could be the difference between life and death. This is often the case for the fatal cases. The food allergic reaction was treated with asthma meds instead of epinephrine.
As your parent, I must learn everything I can about this in order to be able to quickly and effortlessly react in an instant. I must guess right every time. I must educate myself so I can educate others, most importantly you. Jahan, as challenging as this journey is that we are on TOGETHER, I wouldn't change any of it. While I do not enjoy seeing you in distress, I am thankful for the opportunities that all of this has brought to me. You are helping me learn so much, you have helped our family become so incredibly healthy, you have helped both daddy and I become much more understanding towards families with special needs. For all of this, we are thankful.
I continue to scratch my head and lose sleep. I have tried identifying patterns during these reactions. A few things come to mind. Majority occurred after exercise or when a big shift in temperature occurred. But you exercise all day everyday and there are temperature shifts all the time. Hmm, well that is all I have come up with. Wait, there seems to be another pattern, the reactions have also occurred in spaces that are carpeted, four of which were not in our house. I have always correlated these reactions to trace amounts of allergens on hands that somehow ended up in your nose or mouth. Maybe it's something else. Maybe it's not. After doing some digging - maybe it's asthma. Something in the environment you are allergic to and then it is set off by exercise or shifts in temperature.
And now, another reaction, this time, sudden and constant coughing and then wheezing. No vomiting this time. I give two puffs of the inhaler meds that Hopkins prescribed after discussing the recent reactions. The wheezing quickly subsides and the coughing slows. After 15 minutes the coughing dissipates. Could this be that these reactions that mimic food allergic reactions are actually asthma attacks?
ASTHMA - so scary as a parent of a child with many severe food allergies. Why though? Virtually ALL of the deaths that occur from food allergic reactions are in people that also have asthma. And now we may be in the food allergic and asthmatic bucket. Having asthma and controlling it either with functional medicine or conventional medicine is manageable and seemingly not that scary so long as you recognize symptoms and treat it. When you layer on food allergies, it suddenly becomes something else.
So why are the people that have fatal food allergic reactions asthmatics? I can say every one of these five reactions mimics the beginning of food allergic reactions. Sneezing, coughing, wheezing, vomiting - that's how it all starts. So at that point in the reaction, if I guess it's airway distress due to asthma and give the inhaler, and I guessed wrong and we lose time, valuable precious time, that could be the difference between life and death. This is often the case for the fatal cases. The food allergic reaction was treated with asthma meds instead of epinephrine.
As your parent, I must learn everything I can about this in order to be able to quickly and effortlessly react in an instant. I must guess right every time. I must educate myself so I can educate others, most importantly you. Jahan, as challenging as this journey is that we are on TOGETHER, I wouldn't change any of it. While I do not enjoy seeing you in distress, I am thankful for the opportunities that all of this has brought to me. You are helping me learn so much, you have helped our family become so incredibly healthy, you have helped both daddy and I become much more understanding towards families with special needs. For all of this, we are thankful.
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