Posts from ‘General’
on mother’s day
Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 36. And someone important to me was getting married, so I spent it celebrating with the groom, his new wife and a handful of friends. Some people expressed surprise that I’d spend my birthday at a wedding. The way I see it, you get a lot of birthdays, you only get two or three weddings.
Just kidding. Kind of.
Today is Mother’s Day. The weather is gorgeous! I’m taking the kids to a baseball game. Not something I would typically choose to do on Mother’s Day, but the St. Paul Saints is having a special section for families with food allergies today and it will be much, much more safe for my child who has peanut allergies. I know my kiddos will love it, and so, despite the fact that baseball is the slowest, most boring sport I’ve ever seen, we will go and have fun.
Allina Health is giving out these awesome "Wellness Kits" to the first 500 families to attend the kickoff event at the Mpls Farmers Market, Sunday 4/29.
I get pretty excited about giving back to support the health of the community, both personally and professionally, that’s why I’ve focused my career on non-profits and healthcare. Occasionally I share some of the cool things happening where I work on this blog if there’s a way for you to get involved or benefit from a cool program.
This week Allina Health is launching Neighborhood Health Connection- a new program to help communities get healthy, one neighborhood at a time. If you live in Minnesota or western Wisconsin, watch this short video about the program and the cool Wellness Kits we are giving away at the kickoff event at the Minneapolis Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday.
I manage many projects at work – they have a clear beginning, a middle and an end. An advertising campaign, a video production, a special event… The most important questions I always ask at the beginning of a project are: What is the end-product we need? How much time do I have to do this? And what’s my budget? 
Our food allergy friend Leslie traveled to visit our family, all because of food allergies
Thanks so much to all of you who offered support, suggestions and comfort over the past week about our food allergy scare. We still don’t know what caused it (cross contamination or possibly a new allergy to watermelon). We are in limbo until we meet with our allergist. Unfortunately, to my shock and dismay, we experienced a second scary food allergy reaction just a few days later. This time it was a food mix up in my home where she accidentally drank out of the wrong cup and ingested cow’s milk – an allergen we thought she had almost outgrown. I don’t know how many swallows of the milk she had, but I caught her within seconds of putting the cup to her mouth. Still, she had a reaction, involving severe swelling and redness of her face, rubbing of the eyes, some coughing and a touch of wheezing here and there. It was terrifying for me, as I knew we were getting closer and closer to needing to call 911. Whereas the reaction a few days earlier subsided quickly, this one took a long time – upwards of 20 minutes to calm down. The longer it took, the more terrified I became. (EDITED TO NOTE: Upon reviewing this reaction with the allergist, he pointed out that in the future this type of situation WOULD require administering the EpiPen and calling 911. I had misunderstood the term “repetitive coughing” and the severity of the situation. Fortunately she is okay, but I was very disappointed to learn I had not acted swiftly enough. I’ll save all the emotional baggage that comes with this for my therapist, but felt an obligation to share it with my readers). Continue Reading
I had no idea what I was in for when we first found out my daughter has life-threatening food allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and milk. And while food allergies definitely became a big part of our daily lives, after about a year we found a “new normal” and most of my energy was spent on the daily management of food allergies (the food, the safety, training other people).
Unfortunately, over the past week, we’ve had two food allergy scares that have really thrown me for a loop. One was a call I received from daycare worrying about a possible food mix-up. Everything turned out okay and Avery didn’t have any symptoms (which leads me to believe she didn’t get the wrong food after all), but the fear of our daycare provider and my need to stay calm and give information and instructions really took it’s toll on me. After I got off the phone, I broke down in tears. It was my first emergency food allergy phone call and I realized the gravity of how scary it is when my child’s life is at stake. I also flashed forward to her attending school someday and losing even more control of her environment and the realization that I’ll probably get more of these emergency calls. So tough.
Marketing Mama® features articles on parenting as a working mom, health, family activities, cool products, my two adorable children and sometimes I even talk about marketing.
