Jingle Bells, Do They Smell?

It was inevitable.  It had been 10 years since one of my kids thought it was a fun idea to stick something odd up their nose.  A day like this was long overdue.

By 9:00am I had my little cutie-pie all dolled up for her preschool Christmas Music Performance.    All decked out in red & green, she patiently let me put her golden locks into piggy tails.  Then I adorned those precious pig tails with festive jingle-bell scrunchies. I just wanted to eat her up, I tell you.  So, once at school, I snapped photos like crazy and listened to her class sing 4 sweet songs.  Then, I dashed home to finish wrapping gifts.  (It was the last day of preschool for the year, so it was urgent that I seized the day!)

Hours later, my phone alarm chimed to remind me to stash the gift wrapping and pick up my pint-sized cutie from school.  Just then, my phone rang.   It was the preschool.  (Uh-oh.)  This couldn't be good.  Was she sick?  Hurt?  I answered.

"While your daughter was resting on her mat just now, she somehow managed to put a miniature jingle bell up her nose.  You know, the ones that were attached to her hair scrunchy?"

(Breathe.)  Uh, I know the scrunchy.  

"We can't see anything up her nose, but she says it's in there.  And, her nose is bleeding a bit."

And, away I went.  I didn't even panic.

See, I've been down this road before.  Ten years ago, when my oldest daughter was 4, she thought it would be interesting to put a raisin up her nose.  Once she sucked the thing right up into her nasal cavity, she let me know that she (well, we) had a problem.  After trying to pry it out with tweezers and many attempts to have her blow it out, we ended up at the ENT.  (That's the Ear-Nose-Throat doctor, folks, which I had never heard of until then.)  He put her in a "cocoon", which is a happy word for "straight jacket", and sucked the "raisin" out with some sort of scary suction device (ie. mini vacuum cleaner).  Oh, it came out alright.  But less "raisin-ish", and more GRAPE-ish.  Yep, it soaked up enough you-know-what from her sinuses that it came out looking like a full-sized grape!  Oh, how I wish we had camera phones back then!!!

So, back to the bell…

As I was driving, I speed dialed the pediatrician.  They wouldn't be able to get the bell out, they explained, so we would have to see an ENT.  (I knew that already, but thought I'd start at home base.)  Next, I called the ENT office down the hall from the pediatrician.  The one with the cocoon. They had no openings in their schedule that day.  Urgh.

I arrived at the school, and I found my sweet little bell-sniffer sitting calmly in the office chair.  I hugged my baby and made light of the situation.  Boy, will this be a funny story to re-tell when she's older, I thought.  The school administrators were amazing and handled everything perfectly.  However, I knew I needed to get in to see an ENT that afternoon.

We got in the minivan, and while Ella opened various gifts from her Christmas party, I heard her nose whistling while she breathed.  It's the bell - don't laugh out loud, I thought.  After calling 3 more ENTs who could NOT get us in for an appointment, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  While still in the school parking lot, I climbed into the back of the minivan and held my iPhone flashlight up to her nose.  I stretched her nostril open just a bit, and THERE IT WAS!

"It's GREEN!" I said.  "Yep," she responded.

I told her that if she just blew hard, it would come out.  (I hoped.) And, no doctor necessary!  (I prayed.)  On the count of 3, she blew….

And there it went!  It shot right out into the tissue!  FIRST TRY!  We high-fived to celebrate our success.   Yes!  I just saved so much money!  And, of course, my baby can breathe, which was most important : )

It was a win-win.  So long, "booger bell"!

Psalm 46:1 

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Whimsy Girl Club !!!

We have been buzzing with excitement around here when it comes to Whimsy Girl Club!  What is that, you ask?  I would LOVE to tell you!  But first, I'll SHOW you...

Whimsy Girl Club is a new, fun & fabulous way for girls to "Sparkle and Shine" in God's light.

We talk about God, and we use our hands and hearts to make sparkly things and tasty treats to share with our friends and neighbors.

The Kindergarten-3rd Grade girls are called "Little Posies".

The older girls (4th-8th grade) are Whimsy Girls.

We start each month with a bible-based devotional, and we write about what we've learned in our reflection journal.

We create masterpieces and learn about how WE are God's MASTERPIECE.

We spend time in the kitchen putting our God-given "sparkle" into yummy treats to eat and share.

We celebrate friendship and who we are in God. 

 If you are interested in learning more,
or if you would like to start your own club, check out the Whimsy Girl Club website!

No Peanuts at the Cirque du Slape! Our Nut Allergy Story

Like a circus elephant, who DOESN'T love PEANUTS?...or peanut butter? Reese's? or Pay Days? 

What about TREE NUTS - such as pecans, walnuts, cashews & pistachios? 

Well, people who are allergic, that's who, -and we have TWO of them living under our BIG TOP.  

I know. It stinks. 

I feel compelled to share our story because there are so many children out there who struggle daily with food allergies.  Maybe, just maybe, a parent out there will read this and know they are not alone. 

I also hope to share with you some tips and links that I've discovered over the years that have made our struggle with FOOD ALLERGIES a little more bearable.

December 2000

It has been 12 years since the dreadful day....

If not for a friend mentioning that such a thing as a PEANUT ALLERGY existed just weeks beforehand, we may not have known to take IMMEDIATE action to treat our 1st born when she had her 1st encounter with peanut butter.

Peanut butter on an English muffin.  Yummy & harmless, right?  Not the case!  After just one bite, an innocent 13 month old knew that something was NOT right.  A tingling tongue?  An itchy throat?  Who knows, since she didn't have the vocabulary to explain.  All we knew is that she did not want to take another bite.  Then......

These photos were taken at the onset of the hives.  The reaction got much, MUCH worse, but I was not thinking about taking photos at that point. I just wanted to get help for my baby girl!

After dialing the on-call doctor (because it was a holiday weekend), we were told to give our baby a dose of Benadryl when the first hives appeared.  We were new parents, so we didn't have Children's Benadryl on hand.  My husband headed to the closest store, which at that time was miles away.  By the time he returned, the hives were beginning to show up on our baby's stomach & she was extremely uncomfortable - itching & swelling by the moment.  After seeing no improvement once the Benadryl was administered, we decided to drive our baby across town to the ER.

Good thing! When we arrived at the emergency room her little body was covered in hives and her face was swollen beyond recognition. Even though the ER was full of patients that day, our baby was admitted immediately!!!  She was treated with Epinephrine, which saved her life, 

and then, our lives totally changed.....forever.

On that day, the doctor told us that we would need to always carry an EpiPen and that our daughter should STAY AWAY from peanuts and "tree nuts"until we could have her tested for specific food allergies.  (Peanuts are legumes that grow on bushes, other nuts grow on trees.  They are different, but some kids are allergic to both.)   He said that if she was exposed to peanuts a 2nd time, the reaction would most likely be stronger and progress more quickly. (sigh)

Years later, at age 4, our daughter saw an allergist and was poked, prodded and tested to see if she was still allergic to peanuts and tree nuts.  We hoped that she had outgrown the allergy (like some children do), but we were startled to find that on a scale of 0-100 (low to very high), the severity of our little girl's peanut allergy was 100+, off the charts (double sigh)!  The good news was that she did not have an allergy to "tree nuts", so pecans, walnuts and cashews were still on the menu and ok to have around....for now.

Fast forward a few years.....

By accident, we discovered that our 2nd child (thankfully) has NO food allergies (when a friend's son unknowingly shared a peanut butter cracker with our son).  What a relief!  I always say that if our son had food allergies, we would be in the ER at least once a week! He wasn't always the "rule follower" of the family, and so monitoring everything he ate in the preschool years was (thank goodness) not necessary. Whew!

Fast forward to 2006...

 On an unrelated doctor visit, our pediatric nurse practician noticed a rash on our 3rd child's newborn cheeks.  The nurse said that our baby girl may have food allergies, and I (the mom) was instructed to eliminate all dairy from my diet (since I was breastfeeding).  *Are you kidding? No milk, yogurt, cheese or ice cream?  HOW COULD THIS BE???*  Like any loving mother, I made the sacrifice for my baby, and it worked! In just a couple of days, my sweet baby's rash was all cleared up. She officially had a DAIRY ALLERGY. It wasn't until I drank a milkshake (oops - I blame the ditziness on my lack of sleep), then nursed my baby, that I realized how quickly the dairy passed from me, through the breast milk,  to the baby and caused a full-body rash. 

Then...
After her 1st birthday, I let our dairy-allergic 3rd child taste some pecans that were fresh from my grandpa's pecan trees. There was no immediate allergic reaction, so I thought we were in the clear.  However, in the middle of the night our little girl began crying and was particularly annoyed. Thinking she may be hot, I changed her out of her footed-fleece PJs into something cooler (In the least amount of light possible, so she wouldn't think it was morning.)  She seemed more comfortable, so back to bed she went.  When morning came, I went in to love on my baby and change her diaper in her sun-lit room.  In an instant I realized why she had been so upset during the night. She was covered in a red, bumpy rash on her whole body.  It must have been the PECANS! The allergy doctor soon confirmed my suspicions and concluded that our baby #3 was not only allergic to milk, but also to TREE NUTS (pecans, cashews, hazelnuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts, walnuts, etc.) 

Just like with any food allergy, any future exposure to the allergen can be much quicker and more intense. So, we have another child who requires an EpiPen. Ironically, she is NOT allergic to peanuts.  THANK GOODNESS because when she found a lone Reese's Pieces candy in the candy machine dispenser at Chuy's and popped that thing right into her mouth, I prayed that we would not need an ambulance to take us to the ER.  Whew!

*Baby #4 - No known allergies (has already been exposed to dairy, peanuts, almonds).  Yea!

Coping with PEANUT/TREE NUT ALLERGIES:

Food allergies are serious! 

There are no ALLERGY CURES, although research is being done to find a solution to this terrible problem. Oral desensitization and the development allergen-free peanut are two areas of research that give us hope for a cure.  

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network  (FAAN) 

is a GREAT resource for education on this topic! I have learned a lot about how to read food labels & how to make our children's teachers & friends aware of how to protect the allergic when my husband and I aren't there.  

There are lists of NUT-FREE SNACKS online 

that I share with parents who are providing food for school parties and can't seem to find 

ANYTHING that doesn't have an allergy warning label on the box. 

Finally,

KNOW HOW TO USE AN EPIPEN!

Please share this link if you know someone who needs support or education on food/nut allergies.

Also, join us in praying for a cure.