It scares the beegeebees out of me!

This is a picture of Olivia's allergy skin prick test.

For those of you who do not know, a drop of protein serum is placed near a cataloged black marker dot. The serum is then pricked with a two pronged needle and if a hive appears within ten minutes, it means you are allergic to that food/grass/animal, etc. Reactions are then graded according to size of the welt. Anything over the size of an m&m is a 4+ and considered severely allergic.

The dog and horse hives in the picture above were about the size of a dime. The peanut one: the size of a half dollar. And that was at five minutes of testing. The nurse even wiped off the serum saying that the welt was "scary big". Really?!

Now comes the part of the post that I want to reach: I am ashamed to say that at one point in my life, prior to children, and certainly prior to children with food allergies, I remember a conversation I had with someone as we discussed how inconsiderate a person was to ask a plane full of people to please refrain from eating peanuts/peanut products while on the plane. How rude! If they can't have peanuts, then don't ride on an airplane! Why should everyone else be punished?!...Now, I have a darling little girl with a deadly, anaphylactic reacting, peanut allergy. And to complicate things, she has asthma. The pair of reactions that make food allergies even more deadly. Karma has come to bite me in the butt!

Note her Epi-Pen in her back pack pocket?

People, please! PLEASE! Do not underestimate the dangers of food allergies! They KILL people!  They kill children such as sweet Natalie Giorgi.
(I am not talking about food intolerances. In my book, they are different things. And I should know because we have them both in our family. I know so many people who claim an allergy when it is an intolerance and as a result, people are brushing off actual, anaphylactic allergies as "oh, everybody is 'allergic' to something these days.").

We feel as if we are sitting on a time bomb just waiting for Olivia to eat jelly on toast at someone's house, not realizing that the jar of jelly had a knife dipped into it that had previously spread peanut butter. Or a well meaning friend to offer a bite of safe vanilla ice cream never knowing that a lone peanut made it's way into that carton of ice cream at the manufacturer. Or that the child in the shopping cart before us was eating peanut butter ritz crackers and wiping his hands on the handle. We panic to think she might leave her epi pen at home on the day that "it" happens.

I am in no way saying that the world should ban peanuts or peanut butter...or milk or eggs or bees or any other thing people are allergic to. What I am saying is that food allergies are real. Please do not dismiss them as something in our heads, or something to get attention over (I've heard these claims). Please do not be like I was and think that people are inconveniencing others with their allergies.

And if you ever come across my child who has a few hives and a possible peanut exposure, PLEASE help her use her epi pen. Or do it for her! I won't sue you. It's epinephrine. Also known as adrenaline. The drug will hurt her less than the actual shot. Even if it was a false alarm. I'll probably kiss you... because you may very well save my child's life!