NoPeanuts Playdate

One of our local bloggers organized a playdate for parents living in my area whose children have food allergies. It was the perfect day for it! The weather was amazing (finally summer!). We met at a local park with our kids and had a great time sharing stories, getting to know one another and enjoying the morning outdoors. It was a bit hard to talk to adults for longer than 2 minutes at a time because my girls are soooooo active, but nonetheless I was able to have some meaningful conversations.

I have identified what are my personal goals for my involvement with this group:

1. Set up a local internet forum,
   
2. Get in touch with educational programs for childcare providers and review their curriculum on allergies and anaphylaxis,
3. Get in touch with the universities and suggest education about allergies and anaphylaxis be part of the curiculum for graduates of the education program (i.e. new teachers),
4. Get involved with furthering allergy awareness by the general public,
5. Have some fun!

It will likely take me all summer to accomplish these goals, but I think it's a good start.

Daycare Drama

I really want to swear right now, but since this is public, I'll abstain.

I just got a call from the woman who agreed to look after my girls come June and she informed me that she changed her mind. She doesn't feel comfortable looking after a child with allergies and worries that she would just stress herself out too much. I respect that she feels that way and I appreciate that she's taking this seriously, but it pisses me off that she tells me now, instead of 3 days ago when I had other child care providers lined up. The way things work where I live, if you don't take a spot right away, it's gone by next day! So now, I'm back to square one, with less than a week left before I start my new job. I am so ****ing mad right now, words can't even describe it. I'm mostly mad at the allergies. Part of me also feels resentful towards Izzy and my husband for 'giving' her the allergies in the first place.

It's stressful enough switching jobs (careers really), then add to that finding daycare in a market that has significantly less spots than children who need it, and now throw in allergies into the mix and watch my head explode!

I've asked her to reconsider (she really has an excellent program!) and to meet with me tomorrow so that I can go over with her what allergies actually mean and what the real risks are involved. It's frustrating, because how do you explain to someone that yes, there is a risk of dying, but really, allergies are quite manageable and not that scary on a day to day basis. I don't want to diminish the severity of her allergies, but at the same time I don't want to instill fear. And to top it all of, Izzy's most severe reactions to date have always resolved themselves on their own without need for any medication (not even benadril), so I know that her allergies aren't that severe, despite the hives, but at the same time, I can't promise that she'll never need the epi pen, because anaphylaxis is unpredictable!

Man, I hate my life right now. OK, I know I'm just feeling sorry for myself, but come on! does this have to be so freaking hard?!

I'm gonna go take some deep breaths right now.

Anaphylaxis Support Group

I went to a local anaphylaxis support group tonight. It was really cool to meet other parents dealing with the same issues and get pointers about where to find helpful information. I also got a chance to finaly meet a mom I've been emailing with for a few weeks now :-)

Most of the parents there had school aged children, so the discussion seemed to mostly focus on schools, teachers, and school administrators. Although I wished there was more about younger kids (todlrers & preschoolers), it was very informative and quite the eye opener for me of what it will be like in just a few short years. All I can say to myself is baby steps. Take it one day at a time, otherwise I'll just want to give up.

On Saturday I'll be taking the family to a NoPeanuts Playdate organized by another local parent. I think it will be a great opportunity to meet other parents and share some stories/survial tips.

Yes, I've completely abandoned this blog for the past week while I was self absorbed with my latest 'must do' project:

Yes, I'm a knitter, and proud of it, lol! I've been making these for several years now and I finally decided to start selling them on Etsy.com. I've been told that they are definitely cute enough to sell, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm still trying to figure it all out and entertaing the possibility of a partnership with a well established Etsy seller. If you're interested, feel free to drop me a line and I'll let you know where to look for them.

Allergy wise, things have been nice and quiet - just the way I like it!

I'm pretty excited to be involved with setting up a community support group for parents with allergic children in my local area. The first meeting will be in two weeks, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Natalie (the one without allergies) has broken out in hives 2 days in a row earlier in the week, but because I've read on a recent blog that these can happen due to a virus I was a lot less freaked out than I would have been otherwise. She did have a bit of a fever and a runny nose but other than the hives, there were no other allergy symptoms. Just to be safe, I doused her with Benadril and some Tylenol and she seemed fine. After 48 they were all gone, so I'm pretty confident it was viral, but of course, I now have a nagging feeling that perhaps she's not as allergy free as I thought she was. Sigh...