Friday, June 08, 2007

What a Week!

This week has been filled with some not so fun stuff. It's funny how sometimes bad things just happen all in a row.

Tuesday:
Jamie went to see our dentist to get work done for a temporary crown. He then found out he needed to see a periodontist to get some gum and bone work done. Jamie was able to get an appointment to get it done on Wednesday.

Kian and I attended a playgroup that broke off from our class that we were going to over the last year. We had a great time! The thing that went wrong was when one family brought their German Shepherd puppy with them to the park. Kian decided that he wanted to pet it - I was about 20 feet away from him and since there was another kid (an older sibling of one of Kian's classmates) and the owner was right there I figured it would be ok. Well, it wasn't. The dog bit Kian on the nose. The owner did abosoultely nothing to correct the dog and he did not check to see if Kian was ok. Kian just turned to me, grabbed his nose and started to cry hard. At the time it didn't leave a mark but after we got home and through the day there was a clear mark on his nose and lip. Really, we were very lucky that nothing worse happened! I also learned a valuable lesson to be on top of Kian...I thought the owner was responsible but they were not.

Wednesday:
Jamie went to the dentist for dental work. He came home and said he wasn't going to go into work. He had scripts for a very strong pain killer and antibiotic which I quickly went to Safeway (our local supermarket) to get filled. I needed to do some shopping anyway.

I dropped of the scripts and did my shopping. Our Safeway is undergoing some remodeling right now. As I walked around the store filling my cart I could see different things taking shape. One thing I noticed was a station that had nut grinders and the words of different nuts on a sign above the station. They are going to be making different nut butters there!!! Yes!!! In a supermarket where they carry items that have items in the store that legally must have labeling if the items were processed near nuts or other high allergens is now on its way to becoming a nut processing plant itself!!!

I spoke with some people as to when this was going up and no one could give me a time frame. I ended up calling Safeway headquarters to find out what is going on and ended up on the phone with the assistant manager of the store I shop at. Everyone I spoke to was very friendly - the first person was very shocked that something like this was in the store. The assistant manager said that allergies never crossed her mind with the station going in. I informed her that she at least needed to have a sign in front of the store saying that they are processing nuts inside or they could have a lawsuit on their hands. I also let them know that since their station is right next to the produce section it makes things much worse. I told her that if one of Kian's friends brings say Strawberries to a party we have they will be contaminated and Kian will probably have a reaction from it. The assistant manager informed me that she is going to be telling her district manager about this issue. I doubt anything can be done, but I wanted to make sure the knew of the seriousness of this situation. Kian will never be able to set foot in that store, nor will he ever be able to safely consume any food from there while that station is in the store.

So, I began a search for another nearby grocery store. This weekend we will be moving all our prescriptions over to Target. I have shopped my last at any Safeway store. I have also contacted the FDA asking them how stations like this are even possible to exist in a grocery store. I have also started to compose a letter to Safeway as well just because I feel like there is more power behind that than just a phone call. I am also on a Peanut Allergy message board and have been posting there about this issue. Some other mom's and sufferers of nut allergies have joined voices with me in talking to Safeway about doing this. Apparently they are not the only ones to have these stations.

Jamie was pretty much out of commission and rested the whole day - poor guy! We had no idea that this was this serious until after it was done.

OH! And when I was leaving Safeway, I discovered that somewhere over the last few days someone decided that they wanted my "Support your Troups" and "Irish" ribbon magnets. They are both gone :(

Thursday and Friday:
Jamie went to work doped on pain meds. Thankfully the guys he carpools with were able to drive - he can't drive while taking that stuff. When he gets home he just is beyond tired. I am glad that he has the weekend to recover.

PHEW! And now we are to the present time. This week I have lost a lot of sleep just thinking about my poor Kian being bit and then having nightmares of him having a reaction to something from Safeway.

On a more positive note, Kian is on his way to being a big boy and using the potty! He is wearing underwear and using the potty consistently throughout the day. I can't believe how much of a big boy he's becoming!!

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