Next Friday, July 10, 2009 is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A.  If you go partially dressed as a cow (wear a cow hat or bring in a cow purse) you will get a free entree.  If you are dressed head to toe in black and white (you can use marker or construction paper dots on a white t-shirt) you get a FREE MEAL (either breakfast or lunch/dinner).

We took the kids and did this last year and it was a blast.  The  CFA Cow was there and we took pictures and enjoyed our free food all dressed up and looking as silly as everyone else.  FUN!

Here's more info if you want to make sure I'm not saying this just to get you out in public looking like a cow....  http://www.chick-fil-a.com/downloads/CFA_CAD_1pgr.pdf  or click here:

Cow Appreciation Day Info

Giving thanks to God for His abundant love,

We welcome with joy each gift from above.

It is God who gives children, and His ways are GREAT!

Growing right now is baby number EIGHT!

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Yes, our eighth baby is due to arrive in January 2010!

I wrote this poem and sent it in to both the Quiverfull and MOMYS (Mothers of Many Young Siblings) digests.  Please feel free to edit the wording to fit your family and use to share your good news!

We had a follow-up visit with our allergist this week.  It was the first visit since the latest Anaphylaxis episode.  He skin tested my son and the results were not pretty.  Huge "wheals" showed up at the test sites to every componet of dairy and egg.  Over and over again the doctor's eyes grew wide as he stressed how serious my son's allergies are.  He told me his allergies are so serious that even skin contact with residue from an allergen could cause anaphylaxis. 

Even in Food Allergy Support groups, we dance around the scary words.  We say "serious" instead of "life-threatening"and stick to the term "anaphylaxis" rather than saying "he could DIE".  This can be dangerous, though, because most people outside the food allergy community do not understand anaphylaxis.  Most people don't realize how quickly anaphylaxis can occur and how quickly it can lead to death.

It is psychologically traumatic to deal with life with a child who has a life-threatening medical condition.   Adding to the trauma is the fact that food allergies are one of the least understood medical conditions but most dependent on the understanding and help from others to keep a child safe and well.  So part of the trauma is how very alone you feel in dealing with this condition and how frustrating it is to know how to appropriately handle 'educating' others.  Just when you think others understand how dangerous the cheese crackers and ice cream are, you see them feeding their toddlers such foods right next to your allergic child!  Just when you think someone understands that skin contact to an allergen can kill, they are shocked that you can't take your child to play at Chuck E Cheese's.  All sense of composure fades away as you feel overwhelmed, alone, and like you can never safely leave your house.

(from a Time magazine article called "Allergies at the Dinner Table":  http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1562596,00.html#

"Several hospitals around the country are in the process of developing psychiatric programs specifically for families with food allergies. According to Anaphylaxis: How Do You Live With It?, a 2005 article in Health and Social Work, coping with a child who has a severe allergy is similar to dealing with a chronic disease. In a study of 17 families with children with anaphylaxis, the authors describe the profound psychosocial impact on parents of knowing an illness can cause death." 

I am a Christian who trusts in a loving and Sovereign God.  I believe the Bible says that each day is ordained, so I know that my child will live all the days the Lord has planned for him.  But there is, at the exact same time, a responsibility to exercise great care and caution.  This experience of life with food allergies is a serious test of my faith.  I am still struggling to work it all out.  Reasonable caution without overwhelming fear.   Wisdom and faith without carelessness or worry.   I don't want psychiatric counseling.  But I don't have it all figured out yet, either. 

The Junior Mints labels says "Milk and Egg May Be Present".  Well, they obviously are present in the
box we have in our cabinet.  My five year old son ate seven junior mints candies this
afternoon and within minutes he began to have an anaphylactic
reaction. He is severely allergic to both milk and egg and has asthma.

It began with hives that got worse, trouble breathing that got worse,
and then he began to get very sluggish and unresponsive. Just before
the shot, hives were all over his torso, his eyes were
rolling/closing, his breathing was very raspy and short, he couldn't
breathe through his nose at all, he was slumping over, and he was not
answering questions or talking.

I was not home at the time. During all this (which was just over the
course of thirty minutes), my husband gave him Benadryl (no response);
albuterol (no response); and then called 911 and they said to give him
epinephrine. He was immediately better after the epi-pen, jr. shot. The
paramedics came and we followed up at the ER where they watched him
for a couple of hours and gave him steroids which he'll be on for a
few days.

Our allergist said that this was a clinical anaphylactic reaction.  The sluggishness/unresponsiveness was his neurological system shutting down.  It happened so quickly and so quietly that I can see how a parent or caregiver might not recognize the gravity of the situation.  One might think the child was just going to sleep.  But the child is actually losing consciousness as multiple body systems are being affected.  Our doctor's advice, along with STRICTLY AVOIDING all traces of allergens, was that if we ever see two body systems affected--any two systems from the list of:  Skin: (hives/swelling); Respiratory (breathing trouble/coughing/wheezing); Stomach (vomiting, pain, diarrhea); Neurological (sluggishness, not responding normally, eye rolling) to give epinephrine IMMEDIATELY.

We are thanking God for getting our son through this and bringing him back
home safe and well!  I am still going through a sort of post traumatic stress/ post allergic reaction stress.  I keep replaying the events over and over in my mind, losing sleep, dealing with constant headache and I am cleaning out food cabinets, posting lists of safe foods on the cabinets, refilling my Epi-pen jr. prescriptions, and using a permanent marker to write warnings on foods that my husband and I eat that are not safe for the children.

It's so hard to mentally and emotionally process what it's like to have a child with a life-threatening food allergy, realizing that a tiny sip or bite of (or possibly even skin contact with) an allergen could kill them within minutes . . . knowing that these tiny potential killers are everywhere you go, often unseen and unknown . . . wanting to keep them in a safe bubble but knowing God does not mean for us to live in fear . . .