two kids with food allergies...lol...your kidding right???

So dinner last night was suppose to be a celebration...My parents were celebrating Nathan's new job and my sister in law's new career.  She is graduating from college in a week and half from nursing school.  We were so very excited to go out and have dinner out at a place that serves sushi for Nathan because Catie wasn't going with us.  It was Stix...a Japaneses steakhouse.  A place we haven't taken her since we found out she has the shellfish allergy because the shrimp are flying through the air at people.  The protein she is allergic to is literally airborne so just to be safe we have stayed away.
Since Catie had that first reaction I have been very hesitant to give Alex shellfish and have only on rare occasions.  He will have Crab Rangoon here or Calamari there...but has never to date had shrimp that I am aware of...until last night.  I finally relented and said what the heck.  He's seven.  We have to know at some point if he has that food allergy...it's possible...but pretty unlikely.  So he gets the two appetizer shrimp on his plate...and looks at me quizzically.  "Can I eat those mom" he as asked me before he devours them.   I nod and watch in horror as I believe he is going to break out into hives and gasp for breath instantly, even though it takes Catie several minutes to feel any kind of reaction from shrimp.  I almost want to check him over a few minutes later for signs of a rash...nope I'm going to be easy and relax.  My husband even has a picture of me trying to relax...I am doing a pretty good job of faking it, but the whole time I am searching his little neck and face for a rash.
Then the fun begins.  The grill cook begins to flip shrimp into the dinner's mouths.  Alex is up first...the cook over shoots and the shrimp hits Alex in the eye.  He wipes his eye and says he's ok.  I think nothing of it and the cook moves on the someone else.  This goes on till all the shrimp are gone...oh thank God!  We finish dinner and we head home.   A great dinner and we had a great time...Alex learned to eat with Chopsticks and he ate shrimp and survived.  All and all a great night.
Until we get back to mom and dad's house and Alex comes running up to me.
"Mom, Grandma thinks I have pinkeye?!?!"
"what, let me see your eyes baby...they were fine at the restaurant and you didn't have any signs of pink eye earlier!"
"but my eye is all pink and swollen and drippy"
"OMGOSH!!!  Mom he's having an allergic reaction to the damn shrimp!!!"
Marsha and Dad ask if I am sure and how I can tell....
He had a hive right on his eye lid...
So he got a does of Benadryl...the clear kind because we don't want to mess with his ADHD.  I asked if his belly hurt or if he was having any breathing issues...nope he felt fine...just tired.  So off to bed he went.
I explained to Marsha the progression of a allergic reaction and what might happen and what might necessitate a trip to the ER.  I left it at if he throws up and I can't get it to stop we are heading into the ER for an EPI shot.   So sometime over night I heard a bunch of things being moved around and shuffling.  I figured dad was getting up to move to his chair in the living room because his hip was hurting.  Then a little while later Marsha woke me up.
"What was it that you said about throwing up?"
So at 1 I went up and checked his eye and made sure he was doing ok...I was really worried at this point but the throwing up had stopped and I gave him another Benadryl.  The next morning the swelling was mostly gone and the pink was almost all gone too.  I gave him one more Benadryl and hoped for the best.
By lunch the swelling was down and he was fine.  He mentioned at breakfast that the eye he was smacked in was the one that swelled way up...I'm guessing the proteins in the shrimp reacted with the membranes in his eye and it swelled right up.
All better now...but now I have two kids with food allergies and forevermore I will have an epi-pen with me always.

On to Middle School

The very last day of Elementary School

The ClapOut ...a fifth grade tradition!

wait let me take a selfie #Ilovethesekids!

last day of first grade and last day of fifth grade...tears

oh wait I better pull myself together I have a long way to go.

Catie receives the Presidential Gold Award!

WooHoo!  Go Catie!

Last play day!  Enjoy it girlie~

. 

Go Mustangs...trying so hard to be all
grown up...this is the high school and
middle school sweat shirt.

 A FEW THROW BACK PHOTOS

Catie and Alex near his first birthday.

Catie's Second visit with Santa was with Aunt Beth at Bass Pro Shop...Catie didn't like that Santa.   She loved Aunt Beth though.  This was in 2004.

This was Christmas that same year 04 Ryan is pictured here...lol...he just graduated from high school.

Catie's first Best Friend Cadence sitting on Sesame St on the stoop.  

This is Catie with her Great Great Grandma Ruth.

And great grandpa Larry

Grandpa Tim and Uncle Adam

My girl scout is highly awarded...she spent a lot of time working on her badges this year and short of saving a life can't has received the highest honorer for being a Junior scout.  She earned her Bronze Award this year and I could be prouder...she almost right away started talking about how she was going to earn her Silver and Gold Awards.  

She loves basketball and has played for 4 years!

We started learning to cook this year and have been very successful!

She loves her Red Roo...and he loves her too!

They almost never play together.

First American Girl Doll at age 10.
I hope it's the last...damn those things are
expensive!

Catie and Dad go and sleep under the stars
at the Kansas Cosmosphere 

I <3 this girl!

and her art!  someday it's going to be
sold for lots of money!

Every Princess needs a Knight!

She also learned to play bells this year...
not a huge stretch since she played chimes for 4 years in Illinois.

She also went bald to raise money for cancer research...I freaking love this kid!

She sure does love art like I do..This is the centipede at Wichita

And she loves her Kansas Jayhawks...that's almost a crime in Salina...but she does it anyway!

Oh and she's a dare devil...she will ride any ride...nothing is too high...nothing is too fast.  

She loves frozen custard...you don't see that wild cat on her shirt...I made her wear it...
she had a girl scout event and I couldn't find a shirt that was white except that one..so I bought it and put her insignia
pin over it she nearly had a cow...the big black and white spotted kind...she never wore the shirt again.

This is the event that Catie earned her Bronze Award for...she collected food for three weeks for a local lunch program at Christ Cathedral called Feed the Hungry and then her whole troop went and assembled lunches and passed out lunches one Saturday.  They have gone back since and volunteered again.  I love this organization.  I really love my daughter and how great she really is!

Happy `0th Birthday Catie!

This is Catie and her 5th grade teacher...Mr Weikle...she gave him so much crap all year long...he gave her just as much crap.   They were pretty evenly matched...but the rest of the class never even had a chance with Catherine she is so far beyond where they are.   

Catie's birthday at home!

cousins time

Funny faces

First Day of School 2013/2014
Catie fifth grade Alex first grade...the last time they will ever
be in the same school.

She loves to cook and show off

Rusty needs a selfie...wait no he doesn't
want one...wait not Alex doesn't want one.

Me and my girlie!

Summer fun at the pool 2013

This was the last time Catie ate her favorite food  Salmon...she's allergic to salmon and
her doctor told us she could try it but it was likely going to cause a reaction ...it did...she was pissed...that was the last time she smiled with salmon on our table.

Disgusted!

So have you seen these new Coke Cola soda machines that are popping up in all of the fast food establishments.   Our newest one is the Wendy's here in Salina.  It's been a few months maybe a year...I don't keep track because we don't go there often.  We should they support a wonderful organization.  The Dave Thomas Foundation...it's an organization to support families with foster children and adoptions.  That is way off topic however...one of the big reasons we don't go there is the soda fountains.  They are the only drink service available and all of the drinks are dispensed though the same tap.  Including this lovely green beverage.   It's Dasani lime flavored water.  I was a freaked out enough when I got the drink that I ended up not drinking any and going back for some iced tea.   They do have fresh brewed iced tea so there was an option that didn't go through the soda machine.  The regular water was even dispensed through the soda machine however.   This poses significant problems for my family.
   My daughter has a red dye allergy.  Any contact with red dye sends her to the bathroom usually to spend the next 20-45 minutes with severe stomach upset, cramps, bloating, gas, and you guessed it diarrhea.  If we are lucky I can get it to stop there with a couple of Benadryl and she sleeps it off...if not she then starts throwing up and that's when I have to get out the big guns...Epi-pens are not our friends, but they do save lives.   This reaction isn't the one that people hear about so often...they hear about the mouth swelling and the tongue itching.   Well the reality is this is the same thing it just take my daughter's body a little while longer to register an allergic reaction than most...and this is pretty typical of someone who has an allergy that is progressing to anaphlaxis.  The same thing is happening to her...it's just further down in her body.
  This brings me back to the soda machine...if all of the drinks go through the same tap than all of the colors and dyes pass through that same tap.  All of them leave trace amounts behind...gross.  May not be a big deal for you and your family but it's huge for mine. Even that little trace amount can make Catie sick.  I was so grossed out by this water this evening that I didn't even drink it and it made me wonder did Dasani color the water to appeal to more people or was it a machine feature.  I wonder of they were just concerned that we "dumb" consumers wouldn't be able to tell which one was lime if they weren't neon colors.  For the record I have never seen a bottle of Dasani water this color...I know I wouldn't buy it if I did.  I'm not sure why we continue to allow these big companies to pollute our products here in the US when all over the world they are putting limitations on what chemicals, preservative and dyes these companies can use.