I didn’t have
allergies growing up. I had friends who
suffered terribly during allergy season, but thankfully I was spared from that
discomfort – until I moved to the Central Valley. All of a sudden, at 28 years old, I started
feeling stuffy every night. Although I
love living here, the air is horrendous and most people who were born and
raised here have moderate to severe allergies.
Jayson has had
awful allergies from infancy. As a baby
he was in and out of hospitals due to allergies and asthma. Before he was one year old he started getting
allergy shots twice a week. Of course,
this doesn’t bode well for our boys.
Last year we
started noticing Silas sniffling and gasping for breath. Not good.
We started seeing an allergist a couple of months ago, and decided to go
for the allergy shots. Today Silas got
the skin test for allergens (non-food).
The poor kid didn’t
know what hit him.
Lying shirtless on
his stomach, he got 40 pricks on his back.
His skin reacted almost immediately.
Turns out he is allergic to just about everything: tree pollens, grass, weeds, molds and
environment. He is most severely
allergic to cats and molds. The only
thing his skin did not react to was the prick for cockroaches. Hmmm.
That’s pretty useless.
In a few weeks
we’ll begin his shots – twice weekly – for several years. Despite watching him suffer today for a short
period, I’m incredibly grateful that this is my biggest problem to deal with,
and that my boys are otherwise healthy.
I’m grateful for modern medicine, for health insurance, for caring
doctors, and for nearby pharmacies.
And I’m grateful
that when suffering hits us when we least expect it, unannounced and without
warning, and we cry and moan and writhe in pain, we can step back and remember
that there is often a benefit to that suffering. We may not see it now – we definitely may not
feel it now – but the suffering will make us stronger, wiser, and possibly even
healthier… in a mostly-allergy-free future.
OK, I’m getting off my shoebox now.
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