The Power of Panic

Da boys and I were driving in the car the other day and I innocently asked Connor to open up the bag of pretzels I'd brought along for the ride. After helping himself to one, he remarked that he felt "kinda funny".

Now, "kinda funny" might not sound like much coming from the average kid...but when your kid has a full-blown anaphylactic allergy to sesame seeds, you tend to pay attention. Although, obviously not enough attention to have passed on buying the bag of pretzels in the first place.

Mother of the year, I am not.

Sesame seeds were listed as the number six ingredient....and I was in the middle of nowhere, wondering how far till the nearest hospital and whether I even remembered how to work the epi-pen, hopefully buried somewhere in the bottom of my bag.

I insisted Connor drink some of my seltzer (which he adamantly hates), on the theory that it would "dissipate the effects of the actual contact of the offensive food with the lining of the stomach area", which did little to quell his fear, but did wonders for filling the car with a sound of something other than the unspoken screaming panic in my head....and the snoring coming from the back seat, emitting from an utterly unaware and unconscious Taylor.

In the end, all was A-O-K. No hives, no wheezing, no Epi-pen, no hospital. My heart missed several beats, however....and I'll never look at another pretzel without feeling my own stomach tie up in a similar knot.

I'm considering it a cosmic warning....we may not be so lucky next time.

Duly noted.