Thankful Thursday - No Medication

Sometimes I realize things in a delayed fashion.

It hit me the other day that I haven't given Clay any allergy medication since a bit before school let out.

"No big deal," you think? He has seasonal allergies, so you surmise that the seasonal items that irritate him have simply passed by?

Perhaps.

However, last year symptoms from his "seasonal" allergies required him to be on medication from March through September.

You guess it's just a down year for allergens?

Maybe.

But Clay and I prayed together... a bunch... over his allergies. We asked God to please lessen his symptoms so that one day Clay will simply outgrow the allergies and not need medication at all anymore.

Today, I'm claiming this season as a time of God's answered prayers. And I am thankful.

Clay's allergies are minimal compared to what some folks go through. I realize that.

Normally, his nose runs constantly. And while he blows it regularly with a tissue, sometimes he doesn't and the gunk gathers just enough to tickle the edge of a nostril. He then picks at it. A lot. And eventually he has a bloody little scab at the tip of his nose. A scab that I spend months trying to heal with liberal doses of triple antibiotic ointment swabbed at the site.

His throat itches so intensely that by the end of the day, when his dose of Claritin is wearing off, he starts "scratching" his throat by rubbing the top and bottom of it together. This makes a noise that sounds like a piglet's snort. In the height of allergy season, it's the music that serenades Bruce and me to sleep each night. I often hear it throughout the night, too, which means my boy is not getting good rest. This probably explains the ever-present blue shadows beneath Clay's eyes.

And any time he is outdoors, you can bet I'll be piggy-backing his Claritin with a dose of Benadryl, because his eyes become inflamed, red and irritated. (Before I realized he had allergies, when he was still a toddler, the white part of his eyeball swelled so much he had a knot on the side of it. I came unglued and called my mother-in-law who told me Clay's uncle did the same thing as a boy because of allergies. I dosed Clay with Benadryl and his eyeball returned to its normal sphere. This has happened only a few times thankfully!)

BUT...

Clay does not have asthma because of his allergies. He does not require injections as treatment.

I know he has had it easy compared to others with allergies.

Still, we prayed for them to go away, and they have. And for the first time in his life that my son can remember he is having a symptom-free, medication-free summer.

That's big for us.

And Clay knows we prayed for this.

That's even bigger.


"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
Hebrews 4:16

"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."
1 Samuel 1:27

"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"
Matthew 7:11