Jax called me this morning to tell me that he thought he was having an allergic reaction and he was at the hospital. It seems it was not an allergic reaction but an anxiety attack. He told me that he had been struggling with eating from the dining hall since his reaction in October. When he called he was in the waiting room. Clearly they did not think he was having an allergic reaction because he had been waiting for over an hour. He was much calmer, had NOT taken epinephrine and had decided it was probably just anxiety.

He hasn't been sleeping much and yesterday was his big project where he was producer on a live TV show that the school of broadcasting put on (he did an awesome job). However, he stayed up very late to finish some work that he got behind in in the days leading up to the show and then he had a big cup of coffee (he rarely drinks it) and then started questioning whether the food he ate may have had peanuts in it or not. So the lack of sleep and the caffeine heightened his anxiety.

So after that hour and still siitng in the ER waiting room, he told them he was leaving and headed to the school's health and counseling office and was checked out by a nurse who said he was physically fine but she helped him make an appointment to see a counselor and a nutritionist. He also mentioned that he is not going to eat in the dining hall for a few days until he is less worried. He will go to the grocery store and pick up some food. I hope he remembers to get some protein! He is good about eating enough veggies and fruit.

I am so worried about him. Thankfully he will be home in just over a week and he has a month off school. Also, he has an appointment with the allergist scheduled for the week after he gets home just to talk to her and see if he needs to get additional Rx to maybe carry some prednisone around with him if it happens again.

He had some (a lot!) of anxiety around his allergy when he was 9, which is the age when children realize that death is real and permanent. He had stopped eating outside of the house and lost a lot of weight. I took him to counseling for a year where he learned some great techniques to calm himself down. To this day I know he uses those techniques but this is different since it stemmed from a REAL reaction. I am so worried about him!