Sickly?

OK, the other day the word sickly was used to describe me. It kinda bothered me. Not because she said it but because I got to thinking about it and she was right. Over the last 4 months, my family has been sick A LOT. So, I got to thinking because this is actually weird. We have always been a really healthy family.

Little Man hardly ever gets sick even though he has diabetes. The docs say having diabetes lowers your immune system but it doesn't with him. When he gets strep throat (he's had it 3 times in 10 years), it barely bothers him and I've seen adults cry because strep hurts so bad. When he gets a stomach virus, he usually only pukes once. Sometimes he has allergies, but that's it. He's really healthy.
Then we got Toot. She was 3 years old the very first time she had to take antibiotics. And, she hasn't had to take them since. She NEVER gets sick. Sometimes, she will get a little cold and it last about a day. ANY amount of fever makes her puke so that day or two that she has a cold, I just gotta make sure and keep her fever down with Motrin.
Now to Smiley. He is pretty healthy too. In the winter we have to keep a humidifier in his room because the dry are kills him. So, in the winter, he usually has a runny nose. And, if he gets a stomach virus, he usually doesn't throw up. He just gets the runs. He's only been on antibiotics once for an ear infection.
Benny, never gets sick. With anything.
Then there is me. I will usually get what ever the kids have and usually get it worse. Growing up, I never got sick. Then we moved to east TX. I started getting sick a lot at first. Come to find out, I had allergies to pine trees. My body is use to them now so that's good. Now, every year I get one bad cold that turns to bronchitis and I loose my voice (remember, I smoke). Then, I had Smiley. When I only had 2 kids, I still got out and did all the shopping and what not. With 3 kids, that all changed. It's such a hassle for me so Benny does all the shopping now except on rare occasions. I have gotten sick more in the last 2 years than I think I have in my whole life. I think it is just because I am not exposing myself to much and so my immune system isn't like it use to be.

OK, anyway. The reason I am writing this. Last November, Toot, Smiley, and me all got what we thought was a stomach virus. But, it lasted forever. And, it seemed like when we were about to get over it, it would start back over. Benny never got it at all which seemed weird to me because the stomach virus effect everyone that's near it. And I didn't get it very bad, which is weird because usually a stomach virus gets me BAD. Also, nobody at Toots school or Little Mans school had it. And Toot, had it the worst and longest (I'm talking weeks here people). She would be doing better, eat, and then be so sick again.

Now, I have a theory on this. At that time, I had bought some peanut butter like 2 days before Toot got sick. Toot loves pb&j sandwiches. So before and the whole time she was sick, that's what she ate. Since she ate them, so did Smiley. I think I ate one or two. Benny, didn't eat any. Little Man stayed away so he didn't eat any either. At one point, Toot got real dehydrated and quit eating. When she started eating again, it was very bland. She got better. Smiley always eats what she eats and he got better. Then one day in January, Toot came home from school and started puking. I asked her what she had for a snack and she said crackers and juice. I asked the teacher later and she said it was peanut butter crackers. After she got over being sick, she asks for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with no peanut butter.

Sometime in December, I saw that salmonella poisoning was going around pretty bad. I didn't pay much attention to this. Then, they started talking about how it's in the peanut butter. I immediately threw out all of out peanut butter. I started thinking about how every time they or I were sick, we had eaten peanut butter.

This last weekend, my Mom went to Ft Worth to see my brothers and their families. One of my sis-in-laws is a nurse practitioner. I had talked to my Mom about the peanut butter so she talked to my sis-in-law about it. Told her everything about the symptoms coming and going and everything that happened. My sis-in-law said it sounded exactly like salmonella poisoning. That in a healthy person, that is how it would effect them. We now are staying VERY far away from ANYTHING that has peanut butter in it and I did clean out my pantry of any thing with peanuts in it.

So see, we aren't sickly. I was just poisoning us without knowing it. Insert guilt here! I heard it wasn't in the jars of peanut butter but I am not believing it at all. Not after that month we had.

So, please don't feed your family peanut butter until this is all resolved.