Drop by Drop Page #2

---

quickly with Benadryl,

follow up with the pediatrician,

had a discussion about this,

and of course, we

avoided peanuts,

but from then on, I

was on alert as to

what other foods maybe

he's sensitive to.

I've always

had the allergies.

Nobody else in my

family is allergic

to really anything at

the level that I am.

- Alex is our fourth child,

and so I was an

experienced parent

but I had never had

a reaction like this

with any of my kids.

I had a few allergic

reactions with peanuts

when I would eat peanuts, and

I would just like break out

and it would be, my

throat would swell up

and I'd just down

a bunch of Benadryl

and that's pretty much

all I've ever done

is taken so much medication.

When I started taking

Alex to the allergist,

he did a lot of the skin

testing that was normal

for environmental and yes,

some of that did show up

and we started allergy

shots at the age of five.

However, he really

did not listen to me

when I said, what about foods?

Couldn't there be other foods

if he's allergic to peanuts,

then how do we test for that?

And he really dismissed

me and said, well, mom,

we just can't test

for everything.

And you know, you can't

take him off of all foods.

So the treatment

really didn't help.

The shots didn't help; Alex

just got progressively worse,

and then he started having

this muscle pain and cramping

and that was causing

problems at school,

sitting in his desk and just

being very uncomfortable,

waking up with leg cramps,

and that was terrifying.

They sent me to elementary

school in second grade

and I have a little pad on

the back of my metal chair

and this pad was like this.

I mean, it did

absolutely nothing.

It was the stupidest

thing I've ever seen,

but I had to sit with a

pad and that identified me

to all the other kids

that there's like,

Alex apparently has to have

a pillow while he's at school

and that makes you

just look ridiculous.

I think that it's

easy to underestimate

how much allergies

can impact your life.

They impacted

Alex's social life.

I think they impacted

every aspect of his life

because when he was

little, he didn't feel well

so much of the time,

and that really impacted

what he was able to

do, what he felt like.

You know, he tried flag football

but he would be

sliding in the grass

and would come out with rashes

all over so we stopped that.

And that impacts all

aspects of a child's life.

When I would go outside

and I'd see people

sitting in the grass and to me,

I'm like why would

you wanna do that?

Because for me, sitting in

the grass makes me itch.

So allergies change

your entire perspective

of what the world is around you.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes