Impatient, and yearning for the improbable

This week my child will have his yearly allergy check-in. He had his blood taken last week, and on Thursday we go to his allergist to see what's changed, if anything.

For some bizarre reason, after dealing with PN allergy and avoiding tree nuts for 4.5 years, I want it to go away! I want our doctor to tell us L's IgE has dropped, that he is definitely not allergic to any tree nuts. It is hard to understand why, at this stage, I am yearning for him to be free of tree nut allergy. Maybe because he has a suspected nut allergy, and I want him (and us) to have more freedom in what and where he can eat safely? But why now? I just thought I was beyond all that dreaming.. but it seems not. The yearning is still here (it was hidden deep for 4 years).

The yearning to be free of dealing with allergies is also seeping into my awareness in the form of peanut sub-lingual immunotherapy.. you know, building up tolerance to the allergen by eating a minuscule amount of the allergen, and increasing the dose weekly until (hopefully) the allergic persons body learns to tolerate the allergen. So many people both local and international have helpfully told me about, or sent me emails with links describing the great new breakthrough research results in the UK and US, which shows many children respond well to SLIT.

I think all this has built up hope for something better. I want my child to be one of the children who outgrows, or can be treated!

To be sure! Little Rae's.. but big me!

On her blog, Gab, a good friend of mine pointed out the nut-free valentines cookies were available at Whole Foods. What she didn't say, was how addictive they are!

Little Rae's bakery, in Seattle have wonderful peanut and nut-free cookies.. They currently have really cute Shamrock sugar cookies! Look!
OMG, they taste *sooo good*.

Little Rae's is nut free, because their president has a nut allergy. How do I know this? Well, I wrote a glowing thank-you email to the bakery, and got this lovey response back:

"Thanks for writing. I’m glad you liked our nut free cookies. I love hearing about the kids who get to have a “store bought” cookie where there were none before. When I was growing up the allergy was barely taken seriously so I get a lot of satisfaction out of running a nut free bakery for all those people like myself."

The note goes on to say that in California, we ought to be able to get more of Little Rae's wonderful nut-free products:

"Currently you should be able to get our scones look for the peach Passionfruit our best seller and reason for our existence, “everyday cookies” (choc chip, oatmeal raisin, Snickerdoodle and our fabulous Ginger Twinkle) as well as our decorated shortbread cookies."

I keep thinking I ought to write back and ask which other suppliers have their scones.. but although Rae's might be Little, consuming lots of their mouth-watering product would not leave me in the same situation!

Yum-oh!

Seeing Red! Poor peanuts indeed!

I am continuously shocked over how, in the midst of an economic recession (depression?), our country fighting in two wars, school funding being reduced, healthcare and social security in a shambles etc etc, that people have nothing better to do than whine about restricting peanuts at school.

I guess it speaks to how lucky those people are.. they don't need to worry about their children dying, simply because another child wanted to eat a PB&J sandwich at school rather than at home. I guess they also don't have any problems with healthcare, unemployment, falling school standards either. Lucky them.

And one thing I find constantly amusing - if I didn't I'd want to scream - how can people compare food, which is everywhere all the time, to beesting allergies? And talk about banning flowers and bees? Do they have any idea that *it is because of all the vigilance in schools* enacted by understanding and informed people, that more of our children are not dying? I guess we could test this theory out by bringing peanuts into every classroom every day, and not have any precautions, and see whether the fatality rate increases.

Funnily enough, its not something I'm willing to try. And I bet, those people complaining would have exactly the same opinion if they stood in my shoes.

The people posting their supportive comments (supporting a peanut?) also indicate their lack of understanding of the issues involved. But I guess these days you don't actually have to do any research or have any knowledge of a problem in order to write about it, and be published.