After a couple of hectic back-to-back activity-filled weekends, I told Matt that I wanted to do nothing this weekend.  We had family dinner plans with our neighbors on Friday night, gymnastics and ice skating for Kate on Saturday morning – otherwise nothing.  So my intention was to write a post (it’s been awhile) about something positive for once.  All the negativity and stress of December and January, in addition to the bitter cold weather, was beginning to feel old.  Now that the weather feels like spring, I think we’re all feeling more upbeat and revived.  Unfortunately, we had a setback Friday so I’ll start with the briefer version of the “good” and then have it out with the “bad.”

The Good

After having to eliminate more food earlier this year, Dean seems to be generally doing much better.  His allergic reactions have calmed down to a more “normal” state so we decided to reintroduce soy in February.  While we haven’t tried larger doses of it, like edamame, soy milk, etc., he seems to be doing fine with soy as an ingredient in other items like waffles, rice cakes, etc. so we’ll keep with it routinely to ensure he doesn’t develop a more significant allergy.  In addition, Matt tried shrimp last week, and he had no signs of a reaction which is great news in terms of keeping more protein options.  We have not re-tried green or lima beans.  At this point, I’m assuming he’s likely allergic since he was starting to show signs of reactions even prior to the crazy unexplainable December and January months and given all his other legume allergies.  We still need to go in for a challenge of ibuprofen and oats but were waiting for his body to get back on track and then find the time to bring him in.  He has to take or eat small doses over 15-minute increments and then wait for 3 hours after that in the allergist’s office so we’ll likely have to take vacation time for both of those on separate visits.  It’s bubbling up on the priority list but after Friday, we’ll likely wait until April.

The Bad

We went out for pizza on Friday night.  I packed up Dean’s allergen-friendly pizza and some blueberries and headed out to meet everyone for dinner.  While we were getting Kate and Dean’s food ready to eat, without us knowing, Dean sneakily grabbed a bite (we think) of regular pizza off Matt’s plate.  We weren’t sure exactly how serious of a situation this was – he had marinara sauce on his face and his fork in hand.  Did he just touch the sauce or did he actually eat a bite, two bites?  Plus, what does that actually mean?  Will one bite put this kid into anaphylaxis?  We know that his emergency plan has now been updated to give him an epi-pen immediately after known wheat consumption even without any symptoms or if wheat consumption was likely given and there’s any signs of reaction, even mild, because we know what will happen next.  But up until now, when he’s had an anaphylactic reaction, he’s had lots of wheat – an entire bowl of soup that had wheat in it, a bowl of pasta, etc.  Would one bite put him over the edge?  We were watching and waiting.  He had 3 slices of his pizza, the entire bowl of blueberries, and milk and seemed fine.  I thought we were out of the clear. Continue reading →