Posted on 11/26/2005 12:21:14 PM PST by EveningStar
I don't remember my mother mentioned anything when I was a kid in school
But with my kids ... they send memo's home all the time reminding parents about this when there is a holiday and treats are brought into school because there are children in 2 of my daughters classes that have this peanut allergy
2 children in one school? That's just unbelievable. What's happened in the last 30 years to cause this incredible deadly allergy to really flourish. It would be an interesting study.
In the whole school there about a dozen or so with some sort of a peanut or egg allergy
What's causing this ?? ... I have no idea
Glad you can find humor in the death of a child.
Could it be regional? Could it be something in the environment? That's so incredible!
Schools around my way ... they have to be kept at the nurses office
It's not humorous, but it was inevitable.
Anybody with an allergy so severe that a kiss from someone who'd eaten peanuts could be a deadly kiss... this person was not going to live a long life. People can pretend that someone like this can live a "normal life" but that's just ignoring the inevitable.
Researchers started messing with the food chain via growth hormones in meats and genetically altering foods. That seems like a possibility. Artificial food additives is another possibility. When I was a kid bologna tasted good and never upset my stomach. Now one piece of it and within minutes I'm sick as a dog.
Nuts in various forms have been with us and eaten safely ever since. Many kids were raised on Carvers discovery of peanut butter. It has always been considered healthy. But when man started messing with our food chain {improving it as they call it} the problems seemed to become more profound.
Now even a loaf of bread can last two weeks and taste just as horrible & stale two weeks later as it did the day you bought it. Remember the term day old bread? It would be highly delicious and far more fresh tasting compared to the preservative filled loafs now being sold in stores. Some persons tolerance to these altered foods is much lower than others. MSG has to be one of the most unhealthiest food additives created by man IMO. I think food allergies for the most part are a result of mans tampering with what was once good food.
this story is a classic example of no matter how much you try to avoid your allergen its not always possible no matter how much you try.
I had a large exposure to mold this summer. I knew as a kid I was allergic to it and took shots. When I had the exposure this time due to a leaking roof I found out I had Asthma to go with the allergy. I went back to an allergy doctor for testing and he started the shots. Since I was allergic {excessive localized swelling} to bee stings he did testing for that also. This summer I was carrying two inhalers and the epipen kit every where I went. Hopefully by next spring I'll be pretty well desensitized to stings at least. Doctor also recommended carrying an OTC Primatine inhaler in case I got stung. He said use the pen then inhale up to the whole cylinder if breathing became compromised. Most allergies are treatable to the point a reaction can be eliminated or somewhat limited but there are exceptions.
One thing I don't understand though is ER's switch from using Benadryl injections to Vistarl {sp} injection for hives. As a teenager with hives I was given Benadryl. Now the past few times have been Visrarl which is not near as effective and I end up taking the dreaded Prednisone as well. The only thing I can think of would be Benadryl may be more of a risk for adverse reactions?
I'm not sure of how it was screwed up.
The school gave my friend a murky double talk version, as best as he understood it, they either lost it, it was misplaced, it was old, or somehow the nurse screwed it up somehow.
Schools are always going to be murky after a lawsuit.
I think that's a very good explanation.
Evening Star, in the old days little Timmy probably died shortly after eating peanut butter when he was a baby. Kids used to die all the time and probably most parents and doctors chalked it up to notthing but childhood illness. My great grandmother had 7 kids. Only 4 made it to adulthood.
Hopefully with the desensitization shots I won't have to use the kit if I get stung. Actually I worry more about medication reactions. I got some serious Vestibular Dysfunction to the point of it causing G.A.D. and the doctors 12 years ago insisted SSRI's were my only treatment option. Xanax was a big evil boogieman drug I was told :>} I learned better though. First drug was Paxil. I went into Dysreflexia and dern near didn't get to the ER in time as I was starting to shock. I'm trained to recognize and treat it as my wife is a quad and before her urinary diversion surgery she had an indwelling folley. But at that time the way my body was reacing to things I thought it was just part of the disorder they hadn't diagnosed yet.
I was also having bad head aches with each SSRI flavor of the month the pharm rep was pushing. My mental state was going down hill as well and my attacks increasing as the pills got stronger. I finally had to find a doctor who understood the Vestibular history as related to the disorder to get the Xanax. .5mg X4 a day I also have sensory induced Myloclonic seizures. No problems with the drug 12 years into usage. Most problems are cause by improper dosages given both in strength and time apart causing yo yo effects. That and persons who have histories of addictions such as alcohol.
Here's one for the books also adverse medication reactions namely Serotonin Syndrome. If you ever see it in it's acute critical stage you don't ever forget it. My wife was taking SSRI's for PTSS from an idiot dentist who gave her Mepraghan {sp sorry} to pull a tooth. That night she went into hypothermia.
About 10 years later she needed a full mouth extraction and was terrified of it namely seeing a dentist. So we decided to get some help. The shrink wrote Trazadone and Zoloft. She was also on Xanax for anxiety. The Xanax likely saved her life.
One afternoon the Serotonin migration became so extreme she was seeing satan among other things. So off to the ER we go with all medications in hand. The attending decided she was psychotic and needed to be in a state hospital. So he calls the state Mobile Crisis team. In the mean time she is put in an exam room in her wheel chair curtains closed and a guard on the door. I disabled the chair as it is a power chair.
I tried to reason with the attending doctor but his mind was closed on the matter. I asked him where my wife was {as they had moved her again} I found her slumped over pupils fixed, unresponsive. and comatose. I yelled at the doctor do something psychotics do not go into COMA's. I had a few choice words and took her else where.
Being the honest man I am I made the mistake of telling the next ER what happened at the last one and they changed their tune real quick and again wanted her committed as soon as she regained consciousness. Mobile Crisis showed up and by this time I had a planned run to the state line layed out in my head. They refused the hospitals transfer request and she was admitted to the hospital instead.
Next couple of days were real bad on the third night after the SSRI's were stopped she was getting back to herself. Next morning in walks a shrink we didn't know from Adam and says up the SSRI's. Within one hour of taking the pill she was again physchotic and the attendings {not outr family doctor could have cared less}. I prayed, went home, and got on the computer typing in Zoloft +Trazadone +adverse reactions. There it was Serotonin Syndrome. I read the symptoms and they matched her to a T. I called a family member who was in her room and said no more medications till I get there.
I drove back to town and showed the nursing Supervisor for her floor. I asked her doctors be notified STAT as this can be deadly. They said they doctor will be here in the morning. I said OK but you will not give her anything but benzo's nothing else.
Next morning one of them the house doctor came in madder than a wet hen asking why did you stop her medications. I said I'm 99% sure she is having Serotonin Syndrome. He said that's rubbish and nonsense. I looked at him and said read this report then and please note the author is your Pharmacology Professor at this teaching hospital. Oh yea well looks like that's it. Now when can we transfer her to the state mental hospital he asked? I went off on him with some words he likely never heard. She came home with partial amnesia from the ordeal and likely a mild stroke as well.
In a way what I'm saying is not at all off subject to this thread. Adverse reactions and allergic reactions come in all forms. Studies now show it isn't such a great idea to give persons with sensory receptor damage Anti-depressants. A quad is also very likely a Vestibular patient as that also goes. My damage came from chronic sinus allergies as a kid that developed into Generalized Anxiety Disorder {non Phobic} Lot's of stuff out there that can get you hurt.
I posted this because you said you were an ER doctor. I hope by telling this eventually enough of the health care profession especially those prescribing anti-depressants will take better precautions and warn the patients.
Oh yea the irony about the Paxil. When I got to the ER they gave me a folley stat. I looked at the gauge and bulb size and told the doctor had I known that this was the size I needed I could have stopped this a lot sooner as my wife has dozens of them at home that I change for her :>}
Ironically, it could be because of our healthier society that these allergies are being realized at a higher rate.
Infant mortality is at such a low level that it is unusual to hear of very many infant deaths without there being a traumatic event involved. In the past, it was common for children under 2 to just die for very little understood reasons. Our ability to provide good health care for the vast majority of infants may be allowing those with more and more severe allergies and reactions to live longer lives.
A child with a severe peanut allergy in the 1950's would be more likely to have died as an infant than a child today. The lack of available local health care, lack of knowledge of emergency personnel and the lack of general understanding of the symptoms of these kinds of allergic reactions would have led to many infant deaths ascribed to an unknown reason of death.
This begs the question, is this also what is happening with other "growing" problems? Asthma, autism, prostate cancer, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease are all much more commonly diagnosed now than in the past. Is it better diagnostic ability, a real growth in these diseases, or are those who are prone to suffer from these diseases living longer than they were in the past and the disease is becoming more prevalent as a result? Good question in my opinion, and I don't think there is a good answer yet.
I have gradually become allergic to more and more things over the last fifteen years (since adulthood). I just saw a Dr. two weeks ago for a tiny scratch that turned into a teeming mess of hives (second time this has happened in the last 18 months).
She told me it was a hyper-immune system response to an injury; usually seen only in some patients with allergies.
Both times this has happened, the initial response has been antibiotics (which obviously don't work); topical steroids cleared it up. Just thought I'd pass that along in case it ever happens to you!
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