Up in the Air

Remember how I was talking about flying with Georgia on a recent post about our trip to Florida? Well, as of then I was feeling pretty chill about the whole thing.

Now, the Department of Transportation is soliciting comments about what, if anything, to do about peanuts on commercial airlines. You can go here to read more or leave a comment if you have an opinion on the matter.

To put it bluntly, reading the comments of other people with opinions on this matter has left me feeling like I'm going to hyperventilate. Crap, can Georgia really DIE from airborne peanut dust in a plane? Should I not even be letting her fly? Someone please talk me down from the ledge now.

I didn't even leave a comment for the DOT yet because I don't know where I come out on the issue. Reading this formal response to the DOT from FAAN made me feel a lot better. I guess sometimes listening to experts and research results is better than letting yourself be inundated with personal anecdotes. I'd recommend reading FAAN's letter if you are looking for an educated, well written response from the "allergy community", especially if you would put yourself in the "I just don't get it" category or the "it should be your problem, not mine" category.

In other news, I had lunch with my friend Kim this Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed picking her brain about her practices living with a nut allergy for the past 30 years. Contrary to the whole DOT comments thing, talking with Kim had me feeling like if anything I could relax my standards a bit more. She always makes me feel better. I'll write more about all of that later.

As an aside...Kim flew into town for the weekend.
As a further aside...I'm guessing that Georgia is not so sensitive as to die from peanut dust on a plane, or she would've been screwed on our last flight. But with no tests for severity, and no real exposure history/ingestion reactions to rely on, I have no way of being 100% sure.

One more thing...I find it interesting that the DOT is soliciting comments on other issues like waiting on tarmacs and baggage policies, but this peanut issue is garnering about 6 times as many comments as any other issue. Obviously a hot button topic. You would think people would care more about waiting 8 hours on the tarmac than not being served their precious peanuts, but apparently not.

EDITED TO ADD: I think the DOT dropped the whole peanut ban proposal. Well, it wasn't even a proposal, really. They were just soliciting comments, and the peanut farmer lobbyists went nuts. (ha ha. pun intended.) It's a shame.

Oops. Minor Bib Incident.

I wasn't there at the time, but Georgia had a very mild allergic reaction (some hives on her face) to skin contact with a bit of food residue on a bib that she borrowed during a playdate. The bib was the style that slips on over your head (kind of like a tea towel with a head hole cut out of it), so it probably just grazed her cheeks. We think the culprit was either sesame (from hummus) or some peanut butter. The bib's owner suspects hummus. Of course she keeps their bibs clean to normal standards, though, so she jokingly inquired when we discussed the incident later, "Is Georgia allergic to sesame vapors or something?"

I agree -- it is kind of astounding how sensitive Georgia's skin can be. Fortunately, the hives didn't even require any Benadryl and disappeared within 15 minutes. But this incident was a good reminder of how careful we have to be to prevent Georgia's ingestion of allergens.

The silver lining here is that two more adults have now witnessed Georgia having some kind of allergic reaction, thus proving that I'm not crazy. Well, you know what I mean -- it's not that I thought I was crazy, but sometimes I wonder if other people think that Joe and I are just making of all of this allergy stuff up!

That's what friends are for

In connection with the whole letter to Congress thing mentioned in the previous post, I recently exchanged emails with a good friend of mine who is a lifelong food allergy sufferer.

She really has no idea what a positive source of inspiration and comfort she is for me when it comes to dealing with Georgia's food allergies. When my mind starts swirling with all of this stuff, or starts slipping towards greater anxiety, I can remind myself of my friend, who is of course a normal, happy, well adjusted adult despite having to put up with food allergies. Also, she has had multiple scares during her life - awful incidents requiring EpiPen injenctions and trips to the ER. You would think that would make me feel worse, but the fact that she has always come out okay is what makes me feel better. That's the part I choose to focus on.

Anyway, I'll share a few lines of her email, and you'll know why this person helps me stay grounded:

"For what it is worth... ...it will always be harder for you than it is for her."

"The allergies are just going to be part of her life, and she won't know life without them-- I know that sounds hard for a parent, but to her it is all she will know and she will learn to adapt."

Another tip she gave me that brought a smile to my face was to always pack Georgia a good lunch for school field trips, so that she wouldn't have to eat a soggy turkey sandwich. To me this highlighted an interesting difference in perspective -- as the parent, you may be worrying about impending doom, when all your kid is really concerned with is avoiding a soggy substitute box lunch.

Friendship is a two way street, though. While I may not be giving back to my friend as much as I feel like I'm receiving from her right now, she did at least confess to me that hearing about our family's experience is making her see her own food allergies from her mom's perspective for the first time. So, there is that, which is nice.