Yesterday I was in the lunch room, hanging out with my friends, when something happened that absolutely made my day. My friend walked up to the table after buying lunch with a peanut butter sandwich. Having seen this many times, there is usually a routine I go with. I just told him to make sure he doesn’t touch me and it should be fine.  Then he smiled at me and said that it wasn’t peanut butter. He showed me the label of the wrapped sandwich and it said it was a Wowbutter sandwich!

I couldn’t believe it. My school had gone the extra mile to provide peanut butter alternatives, and my friend had gone the extra mile to get that instead of bringing a regular PB&J sandwich. My friend even told me that he seriously couldn’t even taste the difference between the Wowbutter and regular peanut butter.

That event literally made my day. I know it’s kind of strange, but whenever anyone goes out of their way to make a safer environment for me, it makes me really happy.

Speaking of which, he’s right, there isn’t even a noticeable difference between Wowbutter and real peanut butter. For those of you who have allergies or are related  to those who have allergies, Wowbutter is a great alternative to peanut butter. Here is the link to their website.

http://wowbutter.com/

You can order free samples of Wowbutter via the website.

(I am not affiliated or sponsored by the Wowbutter corporation in any way. I just have a great respect for the product.)

Whenever you are willing to do the extra work to make life safer for someone with an allergy, it really makes their day. Trust me, I know firsthand.

Until next time!

Gary

Before I tell you about my first day back to school, I just wanted to thank all of you who responded and answered my survey. It may only take a couple minutes, but every entry means a lot to me. I will leave the survey open for a couple more days just in case you haven’t had a chance to respond and still want to.

Have you ever been super stressed about something?  So stressed that you worry about it for so long that it becomes a lot bigger deal than it actually is? It’s just a part of human nature I guess. However, that is exactly how I would describe my dread about going back to school today. As you may know, today was my first day of my sophomore year of high school. I had been bullied quite a bit last year and I was really worried about it over the Summer, blowing it up in my head to be a bigger and bigger deal each day. However, when I got there, it was okay.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I would much rather be swimming or at the movies, or just blissfully doing nothing for another week or two of summer vacation, but it wasn’t the nightmare I was making it out in my head to be. I was reflecting over this, and then I realized that this also describes my worry over allergies.

I worry about my allergies a lot. It’s natural, and I would even say it’s good to have a healthy amount of worry about it so I can stay safe. However, I am trying to focus on the “healthy” in healthy amount of worry. I used to worry an absurd amount. I was afraid to do anything, touch anything, even go outside. However, I realized that I was just letting my life go to waste.

It is good to be careful when it comes to your allergies, but if you worry too much, then you can’t enjoy yourself. It got to the point where I was developing OCD due to the crazy high amounts of stress I was putting on myself. My point is listen to your allergist, carry your rescue medication, always check the food you eat, but try not to spend all your time worrying like I used to. Don’t let your allergies win. Your allergies don’t keep you from doing anything. You do.

Until next time!

Gary

Hello!

School is tomorrow! I sort of have a combination of emotions right now. Excited, nervous, anxious, more nervous. I’m literally just a bundle of emotions and school supplies right now. Luckily, I seem to be decently prepared. Safety Sack filled with epi-pens and Benadryl for the office? Check. Kozygo and Spibelt ready to bring to school? Check. Giant stack of allergy paperwork? Check.  Weekend trips to Costco, Sam’s Club, and Target for safe lunch and snack supplies. Check.

It also makes me think of my blog. As many of you may know, this blog started as a school project, and as part of the project I created a survey to measure knowledge of food allergies and empathy towards people with food allergies.  It is a quick nine question survey that should take less than five minutes to complete. Most of the questions are multiple choice.

It will be interesting to see the results, because I already conducted the same survey a couple months ago in my school, before I created this blog. It will be interesting to compare the answers of a population mostly free of food allergies with a population living with food allergies. In fact, next week, I will post the results of both surveys.

If you, my readers, could complete this survey for me, I would be incredibly grateful.

The link to the survey is posted below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PHT37D8

Thank you so much for helping me out with this!

Until next time!

Gary

So I’ve been reflecting on yesterday’s post, the 10 things only an allergy kid would understand, and I’ve been thinking a lot about my number one spot, “there is so much more to you than your allergy.” When people meet me, one of the first things they learn about me is my allergy. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I suppose it’s good that people know this about me, because it keeps me safe. However, a lot of people think of me as “the allergy kid” instead of just a kid with allergies. My allergies are a part of me, yes. However, they don’t identify me.

Let me tell you a bit more about myself so that you too can think of me as more than just an “allergy kid.” My name is Gary, and I am 15 years old as of July 31. I have the same birthday as Harry Potter, and a lot of people say I look like him too. I am about to start my sophomore year in high school.  I love to read, play video games, and perfect my chess skills (or lack thereof). I play tennis, like to swim, and am a blue belt in Tae Kwon Do. I will test for my red belt in December. Disney is probably my favorite place on the planet.  I love math. Love it.  Everything about math makes sense. My dad and I consider it “the language of the universe.” I love food.  Especially dessert.  I love puzzles and mysteries.  My favorite food is steak. My favorite book is Treasure Island, but I also love Mad Magazine.  When I grow up I want to be a doctor so I can help people.

I have a little sister who I absolutely adore. I have two wonderful parents. My mom is the sweetest person ever, and my dad is probably the funniest person I ever met. I wouldn’t trade my family for the world, because they mean everything to me.

I am more than just an allergy kid. I am a kid who just so happens to have an allergy. Remember, readers. You are SO MUCH MORE than the first thing people notice about you.

Until next time!

Gary

10. You have a scripted speech ready for every time you go to a restaurant detailing your allergy.

9. When you buy food at the store, you check the label before you check the price.

8.  You treat your epi-pen like your child.

7.  Your favorite part of Disney is not the rides, but the fact that you can eat whatever you want.

6.  You know how to spell anaphylactic.

5.  You have a deep appreciation for any dessert that you can actually have.

4.  You know without a doubt that the  most exciting phrase in the English language is, “The bread is safe.”

3.  Adults ask YOU about the latest food recalls.

2.  You know that it is important to include everyone in activities.

And FINALLY……

1. There is so much more to you than your allergy!

Until next time!

Gary

Hey everyone!

I am planning to post later today about my favorite thing for school lunch, but I wanted to do a quick update this morning.

I am so excited that so many of you found my blog interesting and helpful. The response has been kind of overwhelming considering that just a few days ago, the only frequent on my blog was my grandma. I have received a lot of requests to be able to subscribe to my blog, so I added a few things to help. First, I put a way to sign up to a newsletter on my blog. It sends you an e-mail every week about that week’s posts.  I will also be linking my new blog posts to my Facebook page. So please like me on Facebook, so you can see when I post. If you have any questions or suggestions for things you would like me to write about, please leave a comment.

Until next time!

Gary

School is literally one week from now and I’m getting nervous. I’m just trying to brace myself for the homework, responsibilities, and stress that comes with it. Of course, with school also comes new allergy worries as well. It’s hard to wrap one’s mind around the danger of allergies at school. Most kids worry about getting bad grades at school or something. Me, I worry about literally keeling over and dying.

I guess it must be really weird for other people, but I ponder my own mortality constantly at school. I have to. It’s like a safety mechanism, my own survival instinct. Of course I’m not perfect, so I also have to prepare for the event that something goes south. That’s why my family and I have the teachers trained in how to administer an epi-pen.

Epi-pens are kind of like my lifeline. If I ever were to accidentally digest peanut or nut proteins, I would go into a potentially deadly anaphylactic reaction. My body would kind of go into a panic mode, and start shutting down. The epi-pen administers a burst of adrenaline to the body, halting the reaction for about fifteen minutes, usually enough time for an ambulance to arrive, so its imperative that I receive an epi-pen when I react.

It’s really hard to describe how to use an epi-pen in words, without actually showing it, so I found a great video that demonstrates it perfectly. I will post the video below.

Its extremely important to learn how to administer an epi-pen, as it can mean the difference between life and death for someone with an allergy. If you wish to practice using a practice trainer epi-pen that doesn’t have any medicine in it, you can order one for free by simply filling out the form on this link.

https://www.epipen.com/en/resources/order-a-training-device?utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=training%20epipen_phrase&utm_content=epipen%20trainer&utm_campaign=epipen%202015%20-%20branded&utm_source=bing&gclid=CIna39T7ss4CFYbZMgodLF8AUw&gclsrc=ds

Until next time!

Gary

I’m sure a lot of you have already noticed, but this summer has been really crazy when it came to recalls. The great majority of them had to do with flour. Kellogg’s and General Mills had lots of recalls involving peanut protein and E.coli in their flour. Of course, most of it has died down now, but when all of the recalls had started, my family was kind of in panic mode.

We were basically afraid to buy any new food for a while. We weren’t sure when the next in a large chain of recalls would come up again.

If you ask me, I find recalls especially scary. Usually (USUALLY), you can do pretty well at avoiding something you are allergic to by checking the label of whatever product you are buying. With recalls, this can’t happen. Companies don’t plan recalls, they are an accident, so if you get a recalled product, there would be no way of knowing that it isn’t safe!

My mom checks for recalls on www.foodsafety.gov, www.fda.gov, and www.fsis.usda.gov and if she is still unsure if something is safe she will call the company directly.

This is precisely why my family always checks the internet for any news of recalls. If you or a friend have allergies, I encourage you to do the same, because it could really be the difference between life and death. However, even if there isn’t a recall on something you are eating, always be prepared for the worst. Let’s face it, recalls are scary, but caution and awareness goes a long way. Always have your epi-pen with you.

Until next time!

Gary

Hello!

The intention of this blog is to educate people about the seriousness of allergies, and while I try very hard to inform people, I understand I’m still learning myself.

If you are interested in learning more about allergies of any kind, I recommend using the FARE website. FARE stands for Food Allergy Research and Education. It is a non-profit organization devoted to researching allergies and educating people about them. I love to use this website, as it has a lot of information, even for someone who has lived with an allergy for ten years.

Check out this infographic I found on their website.

Food Allergies in the US Infographic

Cool huh? If you like the infographic, pass it around and show it to your friends! Besides, there’s a lot more where that came from on their website.

http://www.foodallergy.org/

Until next time!

Gary