Blue Bear Aware Blog

It is now just before midnight on a Saturday night and I am wide awake. I'd like to say that I'm channeling my more lighthearted side before children and partying the night away. But I'm not. No. Instead I am about to embark on another all nighter to monitor my son, Aiden. Tonight he went for a walk with his Nana (grandma) and his sister and no sooner reached the entrance to the park when he mysteriously tossed his cookies. The way you hear Nana describe it, he emptied his insides out to the point where she almost caught the cookie tossing bug. He's six years old so you may be thinking 'So What. Kids barf all the time.' Yep. However, in Aiden's case, throwing up is often the first thing he does when having a reaction to food. Experts tell us that reactions can vary every time and I do believe them. Yet, with Aiden we have seen vomiting almost every single time. He is also one of those few have had biphasic reactions even as late as a day and half later. (

World Asthma Awareness  Oh my! So here is it May 1 and somehow it completely slipped my attention that today was World Asthma Day. And how crazy is that given how much my experiences with Asthma influenced my life?!? Honestly. I have had several scares throughout my life as a result of my asthma. In honor of today's awareness to something so common and yet underestimated condition, I'd like to share the story of one event with you. Maybe it will help explain how scary asthma can be for some people. It was Easter break. I could be wrong but I believe it was 1986 or 1987. I only remember that it was around that time because I was already very fond of my stepfather. We had a bit of a rocky start complete with me trying to bite him and him biting me back which was a first for me and it got my attention. But I digress. So by the time of this particular easter break, we were close, so I must have been about 10 years old. I was off school at the time and I remember being super

The greatest gifts you can give your children are  the roots of responsibility  and the wings of independence.  This past Tuesday, my Aiden went on his first school field trip.... without me. Without his dad. Not even his caregiver or a grandparent. Yep. Just him and his 1st grade classmates. Eeeeeeek!!! Okay. Let me explain a little about Aiden and why this was such a huge event and experience for him and for me.  Aiden is my 6 year old multiple life threatening food allergic son. I won't recap and describe his full history and multiple anaphylaxis reactions complete with epinephrine, 911 and the trips and stays in the emergency department. Maybe some day I'll share that history with folks in full detail but for now, just know that at 6 he's pretty familiar with the process and how severe his allergies are. He has even learned that sometimes, previously safe foods are now on the bad list. I guess the bright side is that I don't have to worry about him livi

Shortly after acquiring Blue Bear Aware, it quickly hit me how much I had taken on myself. I realized that I didn't necessarily want to give any of it up as a whole, but the easiest way for me to continue writing, food allergy support, advocacy, running BlueBearAware.com , working Full Time outside the home, raising two children, keeping house and try (I do try) to be a good wife, yada yada yada... was to simplify areas of my life. If you know me, then you know how incredibly difficult that is for me to do but I knew I needed to do that and it would require some hard decisions. One of the first decisions that I made to start simplifying was to significantly reduce the number of support groups I lead or played admin for. I began by turning over the Ann Arbor No Nuts Moms Support Group Leadership to three awesome ladies. I'm so glad they stepped up to take the group on because these three have proven to be an incredible team dedicated to connecting with and helping the food a