louise on the left (coast)

The year, 1998.    My daughter is one year's old.    I'm a first time mom of 37 with a bad case of laryngitis on the day of this segment. I was still reeling from having nearly lost my child to a danger I never realized existed until my child walked into the kitchen, pointed to her mouth, her eyes rolled back in her head, she fell to the floor and stopped breathing. This video is about the day (one of them) everything changed.

Wow. Nice to know there may actually some hope on the horizon about this horrific "allergy." I would be happy to sign my child up for any treatments that may lessen the severity of reaction to peanuts, but I don't know if I'd ever really believe they were actually gone for good. In my own life I have come to see that sometimes allergies come and go. Immune responses fluctuate. This is what's maddening about working with allergies and rheumatological issues: They rarely stay the same from year to year. They seem to evolve all the time, so would I let my child ever pig out on Snickers Bars or Chinese food? Nope. But, I'd breathe easier knowing that she has the most current treatments that may help protect her from another life-threatening anaphylaxis episode. Look: I watched how fast, how severe and how worried the ER staff were. I heard the words "we are doing our best, but we may not be able to save her." I saw my tiny daughter reach out for

I'm one of those rare folks who actually find it interesting to see how many others were either pro or con, and just why. For whatever it's worth, my posts are #22, #23, #72 & #113 For the record, I kept adding comments on the LAT site, but didn't see them. so, for some inexplicable reason started using another name to get see it that would work. Not quite sure why 'Enid Blatsby' was the best I felt I could do at the time. 1. Ah Joel Stein, you work so hard to make yourself so ignorant. I refuse to read you anymore, but I think I'll start urging the times to give you the axe. Submitted by: Shane 5:10 PM PST, January 9, 2009 2. love it...this article couldn't be truer. yes peanut allergies are bad and can be fatal but for god sakes its quite rare. I grew up not long ago in the 80's/90's when no one ever worried about what particular food they were allergic to and we all survived. To ban peanuts from school because a tiny percentage are allergic

As most of you know, if you've followed my blog in the past, then you know I have a severely peanut allergic daughter, who I am fiercely protective of. I try to be understanding about how little people comprehend about anaphylaxis, but sometimes when they choose to be completely stupid, I just see red. Last month was one of those times. Just to bring you up to speed. I'd responded somewhat fiercely to Joel Stein's annoying piece that ran in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago that ripped into the parents of peanut allergic kids suggesting it wasn't a real concern and that our desire to create drama and "specialness" for our kids was really the cause of it all. In any event, I never got any response from either him via The Los Angeles Times, but I did get a response from him via his personal facebook page, of all things. And I really wanted to share with you what his response was, given that one of his main excuses for writing the piece was th