Peanut is the DEBIL!

Okay....in The Waterboy, Kathy Bates said fooseball was the debil, but in our house, peanuts are the debil!

On January 31, 2011, our son had a reaction to peanut butter.  It was not fun for any of us.  He had a small sugar cookie at daycare that had peanut butter mixed in the batter.  He ate it around 4:15.  I picked him up at 4:30 and his eyes were bloodshot and he was sneezing and itchy.  His cheeks and nose were red.  We got in the car and luckily pass by the hospital on the way home, so we stopped and were in a room by 4:45.
Initially, they diagnosed him with an ear infection and pink eye.  I questioned that pink eye would come on so quickly and I mentioned that we had a positive skin test to peanut at 4 months, but that it wasn't 100%.  They wanted to see a more traditional allergic reaction, so I told them we would wait.  Good thing I did.
He started to develop small itchy bumps on his stomach and scalp...these are normally how his eczema flare ups start, so I was pointing them out to them...they said it wasn't a welt/hive, so it wasn't a reaction.  Okay.  So, I told them we would just continue to wait.  By about 5:45, the hives they wanted to see started to appear and by 6:00, his legs were covered in hives and he was very itchy.  He got prednisone at 6:15 and then started to appear sluggish and sick.  At 6:30, he vomited.  I am not sure if it was the prednisone or the reaction, but he did perk up after he threw up.  Then they gave him more prednisone and we stayed there until around 8:30.  He still had hives, but the itching was under control.  He never had any breathing issues or drop in blood pressure, etc.

I am still a little upset that they tried to rush me out of there with an ear infection and pink eye.  Thank goodness I stood my ground and waited.  I mean, they were very nice, but they didn't see the "clinical signs" of a reaction, so in their minds, it wasn't happening...but mom's know their kids and I knew something wasn't right.

Anyway - we now had a peanut allergic child and all the stress and worry that goes along with it.  I am a researcher and as soon as he was safe, I started my research.  I was happy to see that there are universities doing research on treating kids and adults with food allergies.  So, I began contacting the two closest ones to us to see what clinical trials they had openings in.  If there was a chance to participate, I was going to take it.  Johns Hopkins is only working with kids 12 and up.  Duke University had an opening....we are in!!
We will start treatment in May.  It will be a lot of stress and a lot of work on our part, but so worth it if we can desensitize him enough to make him safe and not constantly worried about a reaction.  Wish us luck!