Walnuts!

Walnuts, walnuts, walnuts!  Those delicious tree nuts have now officially caused Landis and I one of the things you never want to hear from your doctor - your child is allergic and he needs to see an allergist!  On Friday, we received this news about Luke and are quite frustrated at this attack of the enemy - aka -the devil.

Let me tell you the whole story and then I will vent some more.  On June 20th, Luke ate 3 whole mini-muffins that were banana walnut flavored.  This was the first time he had eaten these muffins.  About 10 minutes after eating them, he got about 5 red bumps on his chin that went away after about 30 minutes.  I made note of the bumps but didn't really think anything about it.  Then, on June 23rd, Luke had 3 bites of the same muffins - banana wal-nut mini-muffins.  After only 3 bites of the muffins, he got about 3 of those red bumps on his chin and within 10 minutes told me that he thought he needed to throw up.  He ended up spitting up just a little bit and then continued to tell me that he thought he needed to throw up.  I thought maybe he needed to stinky and his stomach was cramping so I took him to the potty and, yes, he did stinky but you could tell he didn't feel good. He kept telling me while he was on the toilet that he needed to "throw up in there."  At this point, my gut instinct told me that this was an allergic reaction to something in these walnut banana muffins.  I immediately prayed, "Lord, I come to you in the name of Jesus. Protect Luke from this reaction getting any stronger."  And, praise be to God - within 5 minutes, his bumps were gone and Luke was better - so much better that he got his appetite back and wanted some cheerios.

I went and looked at the ingredients on the muffins. He had been exposed to every ingredient listed EXCEPT for wal-nuts.  He had eaten this brand of muffins before but he ate the blueberry flavor, so I knew it had to be the wal-nuts.  

This second episode happened on a weekend so I called the pediatricians office on Monday and got an appointment for this past Friday.  We saw Dr. Jedlica. We have never seen her before.  She was awesome!  She said that she definitely thought that Luke was allergic to walnuts and that he could possibly be allergic to other tree nuts.  She said that since he is, obviously, not allergic to peanut butter then it was the tree nut distinction that was causing the allergic reaction.  (This makes sense because Landis is allergic to pine nuts - which is also a tree nut. The scary part - Landis has an anaphylactic reaction whenever he eats pine nuts so we praise God that Luke's reaction was not that serious.)  The doctor referred us to an allergist and prescribed an epi-pen (just in case).  She said that he could be allergic to walnuts in a range from 1 to 6 (1 being mild - like a rash to 6 - the anaphylactic type reaction.) The only way we will know what other nuts Luke is allergic to and the severity of the reaction is to see an allergist. I asked about what the testing would entail and the pediatrician said that they do most of the testing through bloodwork.  I dread this for my sweet Luke - I never thought I would have to see him go through this and this is where I want to vent....

I thought that breastfeeding would reduce his risk of allergies.  I thought the fact that I'm not allergic TO ANYTHING would help him be protected. Well, gang, I thought wrong and, as of right now, Luke is allergic to walnuts and possibly other nuts.  As I vent, I must go on to say - I give thanks and praise to God that He protected Luke from a major reaction last weekend.  I also give thanks and praise to God that He is a HEALER - Yes, A HEALER!  And, it is possible that Luke can be healed of this allergy.  Luke will go to the allergist the first week in August and I look forward and already give PRAISE to the good news that we are going to hear.  Please join me in my prayers expecting good results.

Along these same lines - speaking of PRAISE - in church this morning, Pete read several scriptures about how we are to fight all battles with PRAISE. He reminded us that when we put the WORD in us (which means read the Bible) then we begin to praise God for all of our blessings and for the good things He has done for us and that PRAISE and LIGHT spreads to others and when others are watching us and they see Jesus - we get an open door to talk to them about how Jesus makes us so happy.

In my last blog post, I wrote about doom and gloom, about how I thought the ObamaCare law had pieces in it that could and would lead to the Mark of the Beast and the end of the world. I still believe that - we MUST PRAY THAT HE IS NOT RE-ELECTED! And, I still believe that we are living in the end times but what I didn't post in my last blog was this - we must PRAY for more time and we must PRAY that we get others saved but we must also PRAISE God each day for the day we have and the good things that come from each day.  This message that I heard this morning helped me to move on from an almost depression about where I was seeing this world go - it reminded me to stay focused on the positive (I will praise God and let him fight the enemy for me - He promised me that he would defeat the devil and I should PRAISE Him for that each day).

Gang, I am no longer being shy about my LOVE FOR CHRIST on this blog.  Just in 3 days the Lord has really laid on my heart a desire for me to use this blog for more than just an update on Luke and a way for me to journal.  I have people out there reading who NEED JESUS and it is my responsibility to talk about Him. He is the reason I am who I am and I have what I have.  I can't wait to see what He does in my life as I get focused on PRAISING Him and instilling the Word of God in me and my little boy.

Have a wonderful Sunday afternoon. I hope you check back soon.

Toddy