Allerversary

Tomorrow is our Allerversary.  Yeah, not a real word, but I think you get the concept.  It will be 2 years ago tomorrow that our universe shifted, and we learned of our daughter's food allergies...the hard way.  It was July 3rd, and we thought we would get to relax before dinner.  Nope, not at all.  It became a very long night, and a long weekend.  We didn't know all that she was allergic to, only dairy was clearly off the menu.  The emergency room physician mentioned she may be allergic to several other foods, such as eggs, wheat, etc. (referring to the 8 major food allergens).  That weekend my husband strongly suggested I avoid eggs, too, since he thought she was probably allergic to it.  I was hoping he was wrong, highly doubtful, but avoided that and a few other things that weekend.  [I gave up whatever she was allergic to since I was still nursing.]  Sure enough, he was right.  Our house has been dairy-free and egg-free since July 4th.  It is also free of everything else she is allergic to, too, but those are the big ones.

Besides being life altering, those first few weeks are very difficult.  You can't have an allergy test for several weeks until your system has calmed down.  Once the allergy test comes in, there's relief at having an answer, and sadness at what the answer is.  We went home and dumped a lot of food.  I know a lot of other families with this feel hopelessness, not knowing what to eat.  I knew there would always be fresh fruits and veggies, plus chicken and beef.  Please note, there are people allergic to every kind of fruit, vegetable, and animal (hopefully not all at once).  We are very fortunate at what she is not allergic to.  So once I knew what we were working with, I got online and started looking up recipes that were allergy free.  Eventually I discovered what grains were gluten free, and recipes for baked goods that were also safe.  The first six months baking gluten free weren't too wonderful, but eventually I got the knack and it improved.  I also lost a lot of weight in the beginning.  The negative is once you figure out what you can eat, the pounds come back. 

Anyhow, we're just at the two-year mark.  We're hoping that in the next few years more of her allergies start disappearing.  However, don't ask if her allergies are getting better.  Its not like we feed her a little bit here and there and just watch to see if she reacts.  That would be a game of Russian Roulette, and also child abuse.  The only way to know is through blood work and skin tests done by a doctor.  That generally is done only once a year.  So sometime this fall we'll get her retested and hope there is an improvement.  The difficult part is knowing that very often the numbers go the other way even though we've avoided everything very carefully.  In the meantime, we will continue to try to keep up with our bundle of energy and marvel at how wonderful she is: how bright, how beautiful, and how sweet.