Skip to main content

Bye-Bye 2012! Day 26,27,28

It's a new year, new opportunities and new adventures. 2012 was a great year for us. Here's our recap:

We made it through the whole year with NO life threatening anaphylactic reactions! That is an amazing accomplishment when you figure Sophia's allergic numbers are in the top 2% in the country, and milk is everywhere. Sophia has become very aware of her allergy, and how everybody has differences and that's hers. She saw that there are plenty of ways to spend our time that are fun AND safe for her, and she made some new friends who could see that too. She watched her baby sister grow into a walking little toddler (and playmate) with a BIG personality. We had an opportunity to fly our whole family to NYC to see the top Allergist in the country (some say in the world)! There's a feeling of confidence that comes with knowing Sophia is HIS patient and under HIS radar. Our home became a completely milk-free environment for her safety and our friends and family helped to keep it that way! We grew into a routine that prepares us for outings to help keep Sophia safe. We learned a lot and lent our voices to spread the word on food allergy awareness. The highlight of our year, living with a life threatening food allergy, was when Sophia's food allergy story made it into thousands and thousands of homes when she graced the cover of the Health section of Florida Today. She has a lot of obstacles in front of her, but at age 3 she is already a strong character with a beautiful heart. She's developed a sense of compassion for everyone. She's taught me what unconditional love is and I am so blessed to be on this journey with her. I would say that 2012 was a year we'll never forget. We can't wait to see what 2013 brings.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Going Global With Food Allergies

Have you ever looked at a map of the world, all laid out in front you, and thought, "hmmm...where to go?" Even if you are an adventurous, free-spirited person, food allergies have a way of paralyzingly our curiosity through fear. The constant need to have to be aware of all of our surroundings, naturally develops into taking less unnecessary trips; Always packing our own food and knowing the specific details of the environments we plan to enter ahead of time. The lack of general knowledge of food allergies in the public can force us into creating our own safety bubble. It's a cause and effect reaction that can force families with very severe food allergies to first, find themselves excluded, and then inevitably, because of their previous absence, not given any consideration.  People and the public, in general, can become a safety hazard. To make matters even more difficult and suspect, food itself becomes a weapon because of cross contamination, poor labeling, and very l...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words?

The Story Behind the Picture    I  worry sometimes that this media sensationalized, ideal sense of "perfection" is vitally harming the younger generations. "Perfection" is a feeling, not an image. Feeling everything is going "perfectly" etc. But, we live in a materialistic, superficial world- where we are innately taught to perceive ourselves by our struggles or shortcomings, instead of searching for our gifts. We all have special gifts, and I hope our new growing generation learns to see beneath the surface enough to notice that in each other. It's not that everyone is the same and everyone deserves a trophy (and that whole plethora of an argument), it's more about appreciating differences and learning to seek the gift of individuality. There's a BIG difference. Our kids are being raised in a global, e-commerce, social media driven, multicultural world. We need to stay current with the changing world when raising kids today, in order to prote...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 59-65 "What is anaphylaxis"

All parent's of young children living with a life threatening food allergy live in a constant, round the clock state of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear that our children cannot communicate their immediate needs and symptoms, and fear of putting anyone else in charge of managing this extremely dangerous allergy. Releasing control and delegating responsibilities is definitely where I struggle the most because, for me, handing that over to another person can be the biggest mistake I make. I'm not at all worried that a caregiver would not follow our rules and feed my darling junk food or too much sugar, let her watch too much TV, not use her manners, or let her negotiate her way on everything--- like most parent's would be concerned with. I'm worried that they might misread an ingredient, and show up at my house with cow's milk proteins lingering on their body or garments. I'm worried that they are oblivious to the MANY different ways that milk proteins are presen...
Post a Comment
Read more