My Monday post talked about how I sometimes need mental breaks from food allergies. Thankfully I am not the only one! A big thanks to all those of you agreed with me that mental breaks are needed in the life of a food allergy mom.Today's post is one I have debated writing for well over a year. But this week I decided to expose my own vulnerability on this blog. My intent has never been to hide it from anyone but myself. I also never want to appear that I am blaming my precious Tyler for any of my own problems. All of my emotions bubble over from a deep love I have for my first born child.
But, the last few years have been tough. After Tyler was hospitalized in June 2008 for an anaphylactic reaction, I developed terrible migraines. Had they not started the week after his hospitalization, I might have never made the connection.
In the first year after his reaction, I would develop migraines for about a week at time. They were debilitating but life went on. I would usually have a good week or two before I would get another one. When my husband was diagnosed with tree nut allergies last May, I developed some form of a headache every single day. For 10 months.
I have no food allergies. Yet, my body developed a dramatic reaction to the fact they were (and are) a regular part of my life.
Once the daily headaches started, they became a vicious cycle. I saw a neurologist. He did an MRI and ran other tests and could find nothing clinically wrong. (They did determine there is a brain in my head which is a relief some days!)
I told my doctor all about Tyler and know food allergies were at least partly the cause. I really never expected them to find anything. Yet, life was terribly difficult with a chronic daily headache for 10 months.
I tell you this to say that having a child with life-threatening food allergies is hard. The stress is incredible. It takes a toll on your health.
The headaches are considerably better now. They did not leave without considerable drama, however. I will be back Friday to talk about why I was in the hospital for 4 days in March. As you might guess, I think stress had a thing or two to do with it.
Feel free to share your own experiences in the comments.
9 comments:
Hmmm, interesting. Wonder if my migraines are related too. It is stressful to live in an allergy world!
Thanks for sharing this information. I have experienced difficulty breathing, anxiety induced from stressing about pa's. I hope sharing your story might help you. Stress sure does crazy things to the body. I'm grateful for the information you share on this blog and certainly understand if it is on sporatic as it must be very stressful writing on the topic.
Laura
Oh i am so sorry..
I have to share some findings we came across.. Me dad as well suffered terrible headaches his whole life.. From Cluster to Migrains.. And on occaion a few hives..hmm. One Doctor even had aone of his teeth pulled hoping it would help?? Well it wasn't until he was an old fella that we determined a few allergies.. Egg...and wheat... Tolerable. when eatting. But raised his histamines and he got headaches..
It was hard since he didn't always get hives along with headaches..
But later taking antihistimes did wonders.. He gave up egg, but not wheat.. But he had an answer..
Keep your chin up.. You are not alone.
I too have been under incredible stress since my son had his "episode". My health suffers because I am so focused on everyone else but myself. My anxiety levels goes crazy whenever we leave the house. There is so much that I can't protect my Little Love from.
Thank you for sharing your story Robyn. No family goes untouched when life-threatening allergies are involved.
I have tremendous respect for you, just for the fact that you are being 100% honest. Let's face it, all of us moms (dads too) dealing with any chronic condition relating to our children are experiencing stress. I think you are heading in the right direction by "owning it", and respecting what your body is telling you. We need to support and educate eachother, and hopefully that will help!
Your site had helped me tremendously. Know that all of your work is not in vain! I am sure you are relieving stress for a lot of people out there!
Dena in NY
I've very interested to read how you've managed to reduce your headaches. I have horrible battle with daily headaches and migraines. They've thankfully lessened in recent weeks but I'm not really sure why. I do know that they got significantly worse shortly after we learned of my son's first food allergy (dairy) and rebounded after his peanut reaction. Stress is a very powerful thing.
Thanks for sharing this on your blog. I almost started a peanut allergy blog too, but couldn't bring myself to post in it. So I totally get that you need a break from it. I try to tell myself not to get too worked up over ds' peanut allergy and for now he is pretty safe since he's just coming up on two years old and I'm pretty much always with him. But when I get tired of worrying or reading labels or calling companies or explaining to people, then I think about how he's going to have to do all this, possibly for the rest of his life and it makes me so sad. I just want him to be carefree and enjoy simple pleasures of being able to eat food without worrying that it'll kill him. Thank you for letting me post this here. I don't know any other p/a moms or people and no one, including family "gets it". I hope you will continue to blog, even about this more emotional side of peanut allergy (when you're up to it). Thank you!
Robyn, I feel your pain. And find it very interesting that you posted about this.
I have suffered from migranes for years, but after my daughter was born they have gotten progressively worse. My last episode was a few weeks ago, it lasted 4 days and the nausea and pain were intolerable.
Something to think about!
Thanks for your blog. You have inspired me to start my own peanut allergy blog. Take a peak when you have time. Take care of yourself!
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