Of the millions of things no one prepared me for as a parent (because they couldn't have...and it wasn't their job...and what is parenting without surprises and whimsy), I have to say my child having a life-threatening allergy is the thing I could do without. Every other challenge, every other "Hmm, I never thought I'd be dealing with this" has been surmountable. But Sullivan's egg allergy leaves me stress paralyzed, and as the days go on, it just doesn't get any easier to cope with.
We have everything in place for the terrible eventuality where he eats something with egg again- we have epi pens and benadryl and anaphylaxis action plans and we have trained his teachers and our family, we have already called 911 once to play it safe and will surely do it again-- our world is avoiding egg at all costs, in every situation. Except. Except for when we choose to inject him with something that we know has trace amounts of ovalbumin. Egg.
It is an immeasurable weight- choosing to expose your child to the thing they are allergic to. But that is the choice we've made because the odds of him having a serious, even life-threatening, complication from influenza are much greater than the odds of him having a serious reaction to his flu shot. But. That doesn't mean it isn't a gut-wrenching absolutely awful decision to make, or that I am getting through this week without feeling I could puke at any minute.
Sullivan will be admitted to the short-stay unit at Children's Hospital-Minneapolis on Wednesday, where the team who supervises food challenges will oversee the administration of his flu shot. Their nurse-patient ratio on the unit for anaphylaxis monitoring is 1-1, so we will have a nurse with us every minute that we are there.
Stayed tuned for a very happy email on Wednesday that everything went fine and Sully has been successfully vaccinated.
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