Cleared for take off

Yesterday, I went into my ‘pit crew’ mode: getting permission to pre-board our flight to Mexico, notifying the flight crew of the boys’ allergies, and launching into an intense de-contamination binge, wherein I hurriedly but thoroughly wipe down everything a small child might want to touch (read: everything in reach) so that no nut residue remains that could trigger a reaction. As much as one wants to avoid a reaction on a daily basis, the desire is magnified when the result could be anaphylaxis at 35,000 feet up. So anyway, as I took out my bag of cleaning tools and wiped down every nook and cranny and tray table and emergency exit card, ignoring the stares and comments of other passengers all the while, trying to rush to cover every spot before Orr boards with the boys, I thought of our future life without these allergies.

We wouldn't have to wipe down the seating area of the plane before boarding, notify the flight crew (so that they're aware of the issue), notify ground crew (to get permission to board with the crew), bring on all of our own food (and as many of you know, our boys eat A LOT!), notify the people seated around us (so that they don't touch our kids/their seats after eating the multitude of nuts that are served), quarantine the kids to their clean seats during the flight, bring onboard a small clinic's worth of medication with all the accompanying doctor's notes (just in case), pack a suitcase of food for eating on the trip itself (that we hope customs at our arrival destination will be ok with), bring a note (translated into the language of our destination) that explains to chefs/hotel staff about the allergies, remind our kids constantly to keep their hands out of their mouths, and - even with all of that - remain on edge and hyper-vigilant the whole trip.

Orr and I have talked about what life will be like when we as a family are free from the risks and restrictions that these allergies bring. We’ve decided that once the boys begin the actual ingestion portion of the desensitization treatment and we see it working, we’re going to turn a wall in our house into our wishing wall. There, we’ll each get to write down our wishes of things we want to do once the treatment finishes – things we haven’t been able to do with their allergies - and then cherish accomplishing them one by one. I would imagine the boys will add things like ‘go to a bakery and pick anything we want’ to the wall. Call me a simple girl, but the top item on my wish list is boarding a plane with my family, and sitting down with no worries other than run-of-the-mill, turbulence or lost luggage related concerns. As I finished my de-contamination efforts, put the EPI’s in the seat pocket in front of me, the wipes and a new garbage bag next to me, and welcomed the boys on to the plane, I dreamt of that day.