So, I'm kinda 'little black rain cloud-ish' right now. I just have this little knot in the pit of my stomach. I'm thinking about Annie, and some of what she has ahead of her.
Annie's always had a runny nose, we're already on daily asthma inhalers, and we've had run-ins with hives. Since infanthood she's had 'allergy shiners'. (Kids with chronic allergies tend to have dark circles under their eyes a lot of the time. Our new allergy doctor was impressed when I used the term at Annie's first consultation with him, but this is just a part of the life and lingo of my family.)
But see, Annie had her first bad allergic reaction yesterday. She was playing at her friend's house, and despite spending time around cats in the past, this seemed to be the time where her allergies finally kicked into high gear, and she had one heck of a reaction. Her eyes were swollen and puffy and painful and red and awful. You know the 'inside' part of your eyelid . . . like when you pull your eyelids down and there's the reddish-pink part underneath there, well hers was so inflamed and swollen that it was covering part of the whites of her eyes. It was actually kinda creepy looking. It was mildly painful, but more scary looking than really bad. With some time and some Benadryl the swelling went down, and it doesn't seem to be bugging her now. They're still a little swollen, but no real harm done.
It's just that, I've been there. I had my eyes swell almost all the way shut more times than I can count. As a little kid, not much older than Annie, I had to get drops in my eyes when this happened. They were painful and stung and I hated them . . . but they made things better. I would get the drops out and bring them to my Mom when my allergies started bugging me. Then I'd run and hide and would have to be forcibly held down to have them administered. But I'd always go and get them, because part of me understood they'd make me feel better. I've been hospitalized a handful of times because I spent a little too much time around furry four legged creatures. My eyes itched, my asthma flared, my nose dripped and I coughed and sneezed more than most of my friends. I had several embarassing snot-related incidents as a kid. I hate allergies. Even more, I hate that my daughter has them. I hate that we give her an inhaler every day just to keep her from coughing all night long. I hate that Annie's had hives, or that both of my daughters constantly battle excema. I hate what yesterday's reaction means for the rest of her childhood. Worrying about how much time you can spend at certain friends' houses before things got 'too bad' (for me, longer at dog-houses, shorter at cat-houses, rodent-houses depended on the level of cleanliness . . . but all left me with itchy eyes and a runny nose for the rest of the day.) Skin crawling after playing with someone's cute new puppy. Always begging to sleep over at a friend's house that had cats . . . finally wearing Mom down, then having to go to the emergency room that night. And now I know I've passed this onto her.
Stupid genetics.
5 comments:
I am sorry. I have always felt bad for my friends with allergies. Hopefully, with modern technology they can put her on some fancy cocktail of medicine and it won't be as bad for her. One thing that is suppose to help that is simple is the spray that Febreeze makes for pets. Maybe Annie will have to start spraying down all her friends' houses!
Wow, so sorry. Vin has peanut allergys, but that is easy to maintain. Our kids would be screwed if they were allergic to animals. We have one dog and three cats!!(long story on how we aquired three). So I guess the moral of this comment is that your kids proboly shouldn't spend to much time at our house.
I felt so bad for Annie that other day. She kinda looked like a frog from the side 'cause of how far out her eyes swelled. It was cute, sad and a little creepy.
My allergies have been HORRIBLE, much worse than in years past and I think David is starting to get really worried about what this means for our kids.
And I agree with Jessi. The febreeze allergy spray is actually pretty decent. I've used it at my in-laws house (dogs) and my friend uses it at her parents house when her husband comes over (dogs and cats) and both of us noticed a MAJOR difference in how long we could stay and how bad our symptoms got.
That is sad. I am sad that I can see Weston already developing characteristics that I know I have unintentionally taught him because of what I do and say. I consider us very lucky that we have (so far) avoided allergies. Neither Ian or I have them, so hopefully none of our kids will either, but I can absolutely commiserate about the woes of horrible eczema and daily inhalers. Poor Dav. Anyway, don't beat yourself up about it. There's nothing you can do except be the comforting factor. No matter what though it basically just sucks to watch your child suffer in any way.
Jeff's doctor told us that allergies, exema, and asthma are all caused by the same gene defect. So if you have one, you have the tendencies for all three! Good luck Annie!
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