Nut allergy...who would've thought?

Let me start of by saying I am SO grateful for my kiddos!

BEYOND grateful!

We have an insane crazy life. But it's our life, and we love it...most of the time. 

Now we are embarking on a new journey, a new path on this road of special needs. One I would have never imagined. 

But here we are. 

It all started just over a week ago. Nana came over and, oh so lovingly, gave James a banana nut muffin. 

Nobody thought anything of it. 

It was maybe 10 min later he started scratching his tongue with his fingers. It was weird, but we didn't *really* think too much of it. He had his shirt off, and I saw a couple hives. I thought it was the dog, which we know he has an allergy to. (We're in the process of trying to find our dog a new home)

I saw the hives, so I gave him benadryl and put some hydro-cortisone cream on him. 

He only got worse. 

And FAST. 

I finally decided to put him in the bath to wash the "dog" off of him. As soon as I stood up and grabbed his hand, he threw up everywhere. So, I put him in the tub, and he just continued to scream. This kid is obsessed with baths. He was in there maybe 5 minutes. 

We got him out, then I found the oatmeal bath I had in the cupboard. I decided to put him back in with that in the water. It maybe lasted another 5 minutes, if that. As we were getting him out of the tub again, I saw his lips were turning blue! 

Terrified me! 

An ambulance was called and they gave him a shot and rushed him to the ER. 

This photo was taken right as we were leaving my house. It breaks my heart looking at this to this day.

This was one of the scariest mommy moments I've EVER had. This kid sure gives me his fair share of scary moments. He's always full of surprises!

While we were waiting for all the meds to work, they took some x-rays to make sure his lungs and airways were ok. 

As they were taking the x-rays, they asked me if he had a button on him somewhere. The answer was no, obviously. So then the techs asked if he could have swallowed a penny? My answer was, "I wouldn't be surprised". 

Sure enough! The kid had swallowed a penny!

It only took 5 days for him to "pass" the penny. We are extremely blessed that it didn't do any damage, as there was a big potential for it to get caught in different places. 

We were only in the ER for a few hours. It could have definitely been worse. 

A LOT WORSE!

The next day was a day full of more Dr appointments. We had just seen the allergist a couple weeks before, and they tested him for environmental allergies. Which he ended up with quite a few of them. But he wasn't tested for any food allergies. 

After seeing the allergist on that following visit, he ordered a huge panel of blood work. He diagnosed him with walnut, and most tree nut allergies. He's not allergic to peanuts, but it's looking like it might be every other yummy nut we love. 

He wrote a prescription for 4 epi-pens. One for school, home, mommy's purse and an extra one just in case we need more than one on any given reaction. 

The blood work was done last Thursday. The results aren't back to his Dr yet. Until we know for sure which nuts are the culprit, we are banning ALL nuts around him. 

When all is said and done, he ended up being ok. We just have a different world we will learn to explore. 

It's a tough world.

A scary world.

But we will take it one day at a time. One thing being a special needs mom after all this time is, I've learned to do that. 

ADAPT!

Just take ONE day at a TIME! 

That's all we can do. We will dive into this new way of life like we've done 4 times before. This is just one more thing to make my kids SPECIAL!! 

I wouldn't change that feeling. My kids are indeed, SPECIAL. 

-B