Discovery

My life with allergies started from a very young age. My earliest memories are being plastered from head to toe in creams and bandages, trips to the doctors and blood tests. I have almost always suffered with Eczema before my peanut diagnosis. I was a very sick child and never looked healthy. A doctor once told my mum that my brother would be a very allergic child, but I guess he predicted the wrong child would suffer. Eczema, Asthma and allergies typically go hand in hand from what doctors have told me and from what I have read, so really we should have seen all the warning signs, but you never really know until something happens. 

When I was around five years old I remember watching my father eating a packet of Peanuts and being the curious child I was, I asked to try one. I remember taking the peanut out of the packet and taking a few moments to inspect it. I sniffed it and didn't particularly like the smell and already decided I didn't like it, but because I had taken it I thought I'd be in trouble for wasting it if I didn't at least try it, so I licked it. I threw the peanut in the bin in disgust and said I didn't like it - and that was the end of it. My next memories of what happened are quite vague. I remember not feeling well, my eyes were itching, my body was uncomfortable so I went into my mums room to see what was in my eye, and when I saw myself I just looked for a minute to take it in. My eyes were so swollen that the white part of my eye (sclera) has squashed my Iris (blue part) and was engulfing it. My eyes were bulging from my sockets and my lips were very bright and enlarged. My whole face was red and puffy, so in fear I called my mum up to see what was wrong with me. I don't recall having hives or any other symptoms because my face was so shocking. So my mum rushed me into A&E where I was seen right away. I have no memory of what happened after that but my mum tells me that I was kept in and eventually was referred back to the allergy clinic at the hospital - that I remember - where numerous blood tests and pin prick tests were done. I remember leaving school on various occasions to go there. The doctor told me that I had a severe peanut allergy, that I would likely never grow out of, given my history of eczema and family allergies/eczema/asthma. He also told me that If I was to ever eat one, I would die from Anaphylaxis.  

From there I was given two Epi-Pens that could potentially buy me time to get to the hospital in the case that I would ever eat a peanut. The thing with Epi-Pens is that they have no guaranteed effect. They could stop the reaction all together, they could postpone a reaction, or they could do nothing at all. Having all of those things to deal with at 5 years old is a lot for a child, I was facing my own mortality. I remember being up late at night with my parents crying my eyes out because I didn't want to die. My parents must have had a really hard time watching their baby go through that (Sorry for doing that mum!).

The doctor said to come back every year to do a test to see if I would out-grow the allergy. My last test was at 12 years old and the skin prick test still continued to show that I had a severe allergy. I remember the doctor saying that he wanted to me to try and eat a peanut, but as soon as he saw my arm swell from the peanut oil he said there was no way that was going to happen. The only advice he had to give was "Just make sure you never eat a peanut".

My life was really not that different to any other kids life. I went to an average school, where the other children could eat nuts (although in England, we really don't eat peanut butter and children don't snack on nuts at all, as it is seen as adult food) so I never felt like I was in any danger. My mum took very good care of me when it came to buying food, I could always trust her to look out for me; my dad was also great. The only time I felt unsafe was when I would leave the country or when we went to a family house for the day and there would be peanuts on the table for people to snack on. I remember one occasion that particularly stood out to me when we were at my Aunts house. I was about 10 years old and she'd just had a conservatory built and we were inside because the weather outside was too bad - we were supposed to be having a barbecue but the English weather of course, didn't allow us - so we ate inside. I remember shortly before we ate I started to feel unwell and my eyes were itching, and I told my mum that I wasn't well. The symptoms I had were of a bad allergic reaction, again with a puffy face, swollen eyes and itchiness. The only thing that could have caused it was the bowl of peanuts on the table. It made perfect sense - we were in an enclosed space that air was circulating in and it was making me unwell, so they immediately took me out, threw out the peanuts and eventually I started to feel better. We found out that Anaphylaxis can take place even if you are just in the same room as the allergen so it's a good job we removed them before anything worse happened. After that I became pretty vigilant when it came to peanuts being around me. I always spoke for myself if someone around me was eating nuts or if there were nuts in the same room as me. My mum did a great job in teaching me that it is okay to tell people that you are not comfortable in those situations.

So I guess, thank you mum for getting me through my childhood safely and teaching me that my health is more important than worrying about bugging people over my allergy.