Sweet and Crazy Life: The story of the cashew nut

It's Palm Sunday around 10am and we load up in the car to head to church. Feeling like a good mom I give the boys a piece of fruit and a cup of nuts (cashews) to eat in the car. I figure they are soft enough for Nate to chew and don't think twice about it. He's had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a regular basis and I guess I considered that to mean he was fine with nuts.

Well not minutes into our drive I look back and he has a rash around his mouth and is starting to fuss and scratch his face. U-turn to the grocery store to pick up benadryl allergy and Caladryll lotion, which we have used in the past for his dairy allergy outbreaks. We get him home, dose him up and I rock him to sleep and put him down. He's fussy and itchy but I figure that's normal. About 30 minutes into his nap he starts coughing and seems to be struggling a bit to breathe. Into the car we jump, heading to the hospital, but then he calms down and falls asleep in my arms again (yes, no car seat in times like these. we just hold the baby close in the back seat and drive carefully. dont judge us) so we regroup and agree we're probably overreacting and drive home. Andrew, by the way, is a bit confused by all of this. Serg and Andrew head to the store while I rock Nate while he sleeps. While he's sleeping I get on my phone and start googling "cashew allergies" and it dosn't take long to find that this stuff can get pretty serious. When he starts coughing and getting wheezy again I call Serg and tell him we should go to the hospital for real.

Good thing we did. Once we got to the ER waiting room, poor Nate throws up and then breaks out into a terrible case of hives all over his body. When we get back to the nurse she checks his vitals and quickly gets on the phone to see if there's a room open to start some meds. I am kind of freaking out by the seriousness of it, but ready to get him some relief from the itching and breathing difficulties. What follows is trying to hold down a 1.5 year old while they give him a shot, IV, and thermometer up the butt. NOT pleasant. But necessary. Almost immediately the hives start fading and his breathing is not labored. They take us to another room where he had to stay for 4 hours to make sure there was no relapse after the Epi wore off. Thankfully he slept for most of the time, and when he woke up he was back to normal and super sweet.

We now need to carry epi-pens with us all the time in case he has a serious reaction again. I had never even heard of epi-pens until today, but apparently all my friends have. We are just so thankful he's ok and for God's timing and provision for Nathan and for our family. Allergies can be scary!