An inspiring ‘Greatest Moment’ – food challenge

Hi, my name is Swapnik. My Year 7 class teacher recently asked the class group to write a story about our ‘Greatest Moment’. I decided to write about my great food allergy moment! Here is my short story:

Many people believe that their greatest moments may be passing the Selective test or winning a sporting and other competition however, mine is a little more personal. I was only 5 and starting school when I was called up for an allergy test. You see, I was and still am allergic to a great many things (which I won’t go into) and had not gotten over any. My most dangerous allergies were peanuts and dairy.

This time I was called up for a peanut test as the doctor thought I may have gotten over it.

As I reached the doctor’s surgery I was told to sit down and wait. The time eventually came and I was called into a room. In the room the nurses conducted several tests of which I have no memory. However, the actual test was far from done. A small portion of peanut butter was smeared onto my lip and left to see if it would induce any reaction.

After approximately 30 minutes I was given a small piece of bread with peanut butter and told to eat it. This process kept going on and on until I was told to eat an entire peanut butter sandwich. This produced no reaction. I was clear and could now eat peanuts freely without any worry of causing an anaphylactic reaction. It had been five hours since the entire process had started.

Even though I was cleared of all doubts, the process was not over. I was kept under observation for another hour to see if any last minute reactions occurred.

The wait was finally over and I was clear to go home beyond all doubt. To put it simply, I was ecstatic!

The only thing I could think of was going out and eating every peanut related thing that I could eat until I could eat no more. It was the best feeling to be able to walk into a store and pick up peanuts /products off the shelf without hesitating. I could eat peanuts and there was no need for my EpiPen. My peanut allergy was gone. You may think that what is the big deal and why I am so happy but the answer is that I had gotten over the most difficult allergy to get over and the greatest thing was that I was only five.

Getting over my peanut allergy would definitely be one of the greatest moments of my life however I am only 11 years old. So far nothing can compare to this feeling of absolute joy and it is one moment that I will never forget!

Swapnik, NSW A&AA member