Pensions and Peanuts: Too Much of a Good Thing

Under a Breitbart News headline of “Jesse Jackson Jr. to Grab $8,700 Per Month in Disability, Plus Pension in Prison”, a conservative friend sent me the following note,

“So, Jesse Jackson, Jr. 17 year veteran of the US Congress, suddenly gets a "mood disorder" (about the same time he learned he was to be indicted) and is going to prison for 2.5 years. Because his "mood disorder" was so severe, he has become disabled and will receive $8700 per month as a disability payment as well as $45000 a year from his congressional pension (ed.—when he turns 65), a total of about $150K per year. 

“Is this a great country or what?”

My response was, “How come there wasn't any righteous indignation when other congressmen and senators, many from the Republican side of the aisle, were forced to leave Congress and still got their pensions? I agree, it is pathetic that an elected official who violated the law can be entitled to a government pension, but let's be even-handed in who we single out for public contempt. 

“The timing of the disclosure of his "mood disorder" does make one cynical, but there's also a deeper issue involved here. For too many years our culture has not recognized psychological disorders for the illnesses they truly are. One need only look at PDSDs to see that the military's been a Johnny-come-lately to recognizing injuries that do not manifest themselves through the loss of blood. 

“I'm not qualified to say if Jackson Jr. really has a mental condition. I hope he doesn't, because even the receipt of $8,700 a month is small compensation to the trauma such a condition can have on his life and that of his loved ones.” 

More on Peanuts: My recent post on Finley’s reaction to a peanut elicited some quick responses from Gilda and his mother, Allison. Gilda wanted me to correct the record to show she did not recommend a visit to the emergency room, that baby Benadryl was her recommendation after hearing his symptoms which, I failed to initially cite, included hives on his body. Gilda also said Dan was four months old, not three months, when he drank milk for the first time and experienced anaphylactic shock.

Allison’s corrections and updates to the record are that Finley definitely is allergic to peanuts. The question is how severely and to how many of the three peanut proteins. Finley also has been tested for tree nuts and sesame. 

Finley has been continuing to eat things that have been processed in factories with peanuts and some traces of them since they have never bothered him before and have yet to. But Allison is reading labels of anything novel more closely. 

She also noted it was their pediatrician's on call nurse who suggested a visit to the ER. Overall, Finley’s wind pipe was never in danger of closing; he vomited and got hives but never had any airway restriction (“thank goodness”). 

Peanut allergies affect 1.1% to 1.3% of the U.S. population, not an insignificant number when you realize that means some three million Americans. One friend commented, “We have two grandchildren allergic to peanuts and selective tree nuts.  It's a real challenge.”

Another grandmother responded, “In the incredible nut world, (new southern Florida resident) Caroline reports from the new Temple pre-school that they serve lunch every day if you want it and they also claim they are nut free but one of the acceptable foods to bring was peanut butter (ed.—italics added). Really?”

Peanuts, Get Your Peanuts, He'ya. No Thank You.

We're still waiting definitive word on whether our grandson Finley is allergic to peanuts. Several weeks ago while visiting his maternal grandparents at their Virginia lake house, he reacted negatively to a single peanut. In other words, he threw up, had welts on his body and complained of a scratchy throat. 

Dan called Gilda who immediately recommended children's Benadryl to combat what might have been a slight case of anaphylactic shock. 

Finley’s brush with a closed wind pipe brought back memories of the time we brought the four-month-old Dan to Friday night dinner at my parents’ home in Brooklyn. It was the first time Gilda's mother and stepfather were there as well. When Dan had visited the pediatrician earlier that week the doctor suggested he could try milk for the first time.

We filled a shot glass with milk. With excellent hand to mouth coordination for a four-month-old, Dan quickly downed the milk. He so impressed his grandparents that we set him up again for a second shot. 

Show time ended, Gilda took him into the bedroom for some mother’s milk. She put him down to sleep while the grown ups sat down to dinner.

Uncharacteristically, Dan started crying. When I checked on him I found his stretchy and diaper soaking wet. I asked Gilda if she had changed him. Of course, she responded. When I undressed him I noticed his chest really caved in as he struggled to breathe. I called in Gilda to see. With her first look, the former newborn intensive care nurse spun into action. 

Quickly, she said, we have to go to the hospital. Though the nearest one was Coney Island Hospital, she chose Maimonides in Borough Park. Still seated at the dinette table, our parents were too surprised to move as we whizzed by on our way out the door. To this day I never found out how long Rose and Gus remained for dinner with my parents.

When we arrived at the emergency room the doctor gave Dan a shot of epinephrine to stabilize him. From then on we stayed away from giving Dan any dairy product. Even touching his body with butter or cheese would produce a welt on the spot. We bought him a medic alert bracelet. Eventually he grew out of his allergy, though he still is not a big dairy consumer.

If Finley has a peanut allergy it will be tougher to monitor his food intake. Too many foods are processed at plants that are compromised by the presence of peanuts. But, I may be getting ahead of the facts. For now, with EpiPen on hand, Allison and Dan, and his grandparents, await results of his allergy tests.