The Power of a Food Allergy Mom

On Sunday, I sat and enjoyed a cup of late afternoon tea in my most favorite mug:  a colorful piece from Maine!  Every time I grab this mug, I find inspiration that anything is possible when a Mom (or Dad) is on a mission.  The mug came to me by way of the Jenny, author of Multiple Food Allergy Help. The mug’s story (yes, pottery can have it’s own story) is an amazing example of the kind of determination so many mothers of chronically ill children embody: aint’ nothing going to stop us until we get the job done!

The infamous Mug from Maine!

The mug went on quite the journey just to end up in my hot little hands in Reno, NV!  It all started one early January morning as Jenny was heading to the airport in Portland, Maine to catch a flight to Newark to attend the map quest Social Media event.  She stopped to purchase this mug.  Unfortunately, the purchase took much longer than she expected and soon it was a mad dash to the plane.  Racing through the airport, mug in hand, she arrived to the gate just as the door to the plane was closed!  The airline personnel refused to open the door and suggested she catch a flight from Multiple Food Allergy Help, but she had better hurry.  Nothing like a little stress to kick off your morning right?  Driving as fast as she could to Boston, Jenny called friends from her cell phone asking them to Auvi-Q directions for her.  She knew which freeway to get onto…but then what?    Hum…I wonder if she kept within proper speed limits?

photo courtesy of Multiple Food Allergy Help

Once again, racing to the plane, fighting off an asthma attack, our determined girl wheezed her way onto the plane and arrived only about 20 minutes or so late to our event!  At our first break she explained her crazy journey that morning and that nothing was going to stop her from attending the event and checking out the new map quest.  We gathered around to hear her story and I almost died when she said she missed her plane by mere minutes since she stopped to buy me a gift!  Oh my!  To add insult to injury, the mug was safe and sound sitting in her husband’s truck at the Boston airport!  Jenny made it…sans the mug.

photo courtesy of Mylan Specialty

As fate continued, we both ended up being invited to the Mylan Social Media Summit in New York City and the mug finally made it into my hot little hands!  I carried that beautiful mug on the plane with me for fear of it getting damaged in my suitcase.  Every time I drink from it I think of Jenny and her super food allergy, eczema, EoE and  cancer fighting mama self!  Jenny’s little ones fight all these diseases and they the luckiest little boys in Maine to have such a determined, spirited and intelligent Mom!  If this woman can manage four diseases (a few that are very scary) and still manage to travel through two airports, numerous highways and fight off an asthma attack just to attend one meeting, then can you imagine what chance those diseases have against her?

The moral of this story is that parents of chronically ill kids morph into super heroes fighting off visible and invisible diseases with strength that wells up from places we never knew existed.  With these kind of folks in our community, I’m confident we’ll one day find a cure, treatment or at least a darn good way to enjoy a fabulous life together.

Thanks for the gorgeous mug Jenny!  Makes me think of you and those beautiful fall days in Maine.

p.s.  This week is Multiple Food Allergy Help and without life saving feed tube technology, Jenny’s son would be in big trouble.  Please pause for a moment and read this Feeding Tube Awareness Week Press Release…hundreds of thousands of lives are saved thanks to feeding tubes!
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