Rebecca's Story
by Christyne LaPlaca
It was Christmas Day, 1996, and Rebecca had just turned 3. She had a great
time playing with her cousins, opening and playing with new toys, and
eating lots and lots of food. Towards the end of the day, Rebecca asked
me for a piece of candy that I had just picked up from the Chocolate
Assortment. It was my favorite: Milk Chocolate with tiny chopped nuts.
Since Rebecca had eaten so many treats that day, I thought, Why Not, one more
goody, It is Christmas! But then I reconsidered and said No. Rebecca
really wanted that candy and begged Pleeeeeeeeease? I said, Well,
all right, you can have a lick.
And so Rebecca licked that chocolate
one good lick.
The Reaction (hmmm...WARNING....a little graphic if you are here to buy cookies.....but
moms & dads will understand!)
About 15 minutes later, Rebecca threw up all of the lovely food she had eaten
that Christmas Day. We chalked this up to Holiday excitement, cleaned her, and
bid our good-byes. As we were leaving, I noticed
Rebeccas normally bright-white eyes were a little bloodshot. On the
ride home, we were convinced that Rebecca would be sick again because
she had a funny, gagging kind of cough. We got home OK though, Rebecca
was sleepy but fine, and we put her right to bed.
Another 10 minutes went by and Rebecca got out of bed and called for me. I went
to the bottom of the stairs and looked up. I could not believe my eyes:
Her face was grotesquely swollen. I ran up the stairs and could
not even see the tips of her long eyelashes. She had diarrhea like you
would not believe, and her entire torso was covered in large red hives.
The Emergency Room
Nick and I still had no idea what was going on, but we knew it was not good. Nick called the pediatrician, who told him to go straight to the Emergency Room, which
was only about 5 minutes away.
The ER was
filled with the typical holiday crowd and it looked like a long wait.
But the doctors knew we were coming (God Bless the Pediatrician) and
rushed Rebecca into a treatment room as soon as we ran in. They gave
her Epinephrine and took her vitals. I was really scared now because
they did not even ask for our insurance information. Yikes. They gave
Rebecca more Epinephrine. They listened to her lungs and thought she
sounded wheezy.
The Epinephrine kicked in and the ER team
was satisfied enough to ask our information. I thought I was calm and
in control, but could not remember our phone number. We did finally
give them all the information they needed. They sent a doctor in to
talk to us about allergic reactions. The doctor surmised that Rebecca
had a nut allergy.
No, we said, She eats
Peanut Butter all of the time. The doctor informed us that peanuts
are not a nut, but a legume (who knew), and Rebecca is probably
allergic to tree-nuts, but to stop eating peanut butter just the same.
The doctor told us that we needed to wait in the waiting room for at
least 4 hours in case her body had another reaction, called a
bi-phasic reaction, when the allergen rears its head again and the
body has another anaphylactic reaction. Epinephrine, bi-phasic,
anaphylactic, ai, ai, ai, this was a lot to digest.
Visit an Allergist
We
finally went home. We visited the Pediatrician the next day, and made
an appointment with an allergist. Rebecca was still grotesquely swollen
and got lots of sideways stares from people. The allergist ran blood
tests and reported that Rebecca was indeed allergic to nuts, be very
careful to avoid them, and to always carry our EpiPen.
Our Education Began
So began our long and often painful journey to educate ourselves and
the people around us about food allergies. A lot of it has not been fun
and some difficult decisions had to be made. There were tears and
sleepless nights along the way.
We are
careful, read every ingredient list every time, and still worry.
No more Peanut Butter for Rebecca, because it we were afraid she
would suddenly develop an allergy to it. We read everything that
comes into our home. We do not purchase anything with a May
Contain or Processed On warning. Peanuts are everywhere. Some self-tanners have cashew oil.
I began attending a support group, which was very helpful. I
started a local group and ran it for three years. We had a great
group and helped educate the community about Food Allergies. This
group is still meeting; one of the original members is now the leader.
I lobbied at the statehouse and wrote countess
letters to local and national legislators to ask
for more school nurse funding, better food labels, and a mandate to require ambulance
service to always carry and administer epinephrine.
In the beginning (and probably still), a
lot of folks thought we were overprotective of Rebecca. Some
people still get offended when she is not allowed to eat their
food. Some people "get it" and some people don't. We always
err on the side of caution. We walk out of restaurants if we feel they do not
understand how serious a nut allergy is.
It seems like everyone with a peanut/nut allergy
experiences the same things.
But, we have a lot to be thankful for:
We are fortunate to have witnessed Rebeccas reaction, to know exactly
how little she ate and how violently her body reacted. It was very
powerful - still wish I had taken a photo of her to show people who
don't really understand.
Compared with 1996,
- the public and food manufacturers are more aware of how serious food allergies
are.
- Many schools are peanut/nut restricted in some way, and labels are also improving.
- As of January 1, 2006, Food Labels are required to list allergens in a way that
everyone, even a child, can understand.
- Researchers
are working hard to pin down why there are so many people with peanut
& nut allergies, and we are optimistic that they will find a cure
or at least a way to minimize a reaction to a trace amount of allergen.
- It still is not great, and some places
are really not great, but with lots of people out there working hard,
it is getting better.
We have met some awesome people who have taught us so much and helped get us
through some hard times.
Finally,
Rebecca is a wonderful, mature girl who takes her allergy very
seriously. She was amazingly responsible when she was 4, and is
amazingly responsible now. We love Rebecca very much, and she loves us
(and our cookies!).
** The material on this web page is not intended to serve as medical advice.
