When Allergies Attack

My Saturday started off normal enough.

I worked Friday night( with much drama), so Saturday morning, I was in a sleep coma while Pookah and C-Dub went to the Fernbank Museum.

I woke up when Pookah woke up from his nap and he and Cdub played bowling in the foyer.

The day was going well. C-Dub decided to go to Popeyes for dinner. Which was OK with me because we knew that Pookah could eat the fries there(because he had them before with NO problems).

Dinner done, I decided to take Pookah outside for bubbles and a few evening photos.

But, before I could get any good ones, he started sneezing over and over.

And then, his nose started running and he was stuffed up.

And I noticed this large red patch near his mouth.

What did he eat???

I picked him up and took him inside to look him over more closely. No hives. But his nose was getting worse.  And he kept sneezing with an occasional cough thrown in.

I didn’t like the cough. It was a “my throat is itching” cough.

Being the nurse that I am, I recognized that clinically, he was having an allergic reaction, even though the signs were not the usual ones for him.

I gave him the Benadryl, and told C-Dub. He wasn’t too concerned and kept typing away on his computer. (really?)

I sat to wait for it to work, and looked him over some more. One hive noted on his lower back. Just ONE.

But it got worse.

I noticed that his breathing was worse, the cough was always there now and that his lips were starting to swell.

But I waited a little longer hoping that the Benadryl would kick in.

Around 15 mintues later, Pookah turned to me and I could see that his tongue was swollen and he was beginning to struggle to breathe. I heard the wheezing. He looked drowsy, and slightly grey.

SHIT SHIT SHIT

I grabbed the Epi Pen from the kitchen drawer and rushed upstairs to tell C-Dub to call 911.

And for the second time in his young life, Pookah got an epi pen.

I can’t tell you the terror that I was pushing back tryingto keep him calm, CDub calm and me calm while we waited for the ambulance.

By the time they arrived, Pookah was much better. But still a little out of it.

But he was so excited that the firemen had come to see him!

After they examined him, they asked if I wanted to take him to the ER.

Of course, and I want to go in the ambulance.

C-Dub was looking at me like I was crazy and so were they, but since I work in helathcare, I know the system.

Let me explain.

If I take my child to the ER and his breathing is fine, and he’s not cut off any limbs…we will wait in the waiting room

BUT, if I go by ambulance, you are directly admitted to a room. Just.Like.That.

I learned that from my patients at work.  I decided to work the system in my favor for a change.

Pookah in the ambulance taken with my iphone.

So anyway, they took us to Children’s at Hughes Spalding downtown by Grady. At first, I was a little skeptical,but I didn’t want to drive  the 30 minutes up to Children’s at Egleston or Scottish Rite I agreed. I always forget about Hughes Spalding because the Children’s Healthcare system just bought it and remolded it.  Anyway, it is NICE. It looks like all the other Children’s hospitals here, only smaller.  And service was wonderful and it took only 15 mintues to get there.

We will be back I’m sure.

So anyway, Pookah by now was BEYOND hyper from the epi pen and doing just fine. He got looked over and sent home with instructions for Benadryl around the clock for the next 2 days.

BIG SIGH OF RELIEF

He was a little pitiful Sautruday, and even took a 4 hour nap.  But by the evening time, he seemed to have recovered to his old self.

This weekend was a hard hard lesson for me.

I am usually soooo careful about what I let Pookah eat.  So it bothers me that something that he usually eats might have made him sick. And the fact that the symtoms took over an hour to show up bothers me even more. I considered that he might have gotten stung by a spider or something, but I couldn’t find any bite marks over his body.  I questioned C-Dub over what he ate in the morning, and the only suspect was the turkey meatballs from Whole Foods. I’ve never let him have them, because most meatballs use a filler like breadcrumbs to keep them together. But if it was those, why didn’t the allergy show up sooner? And the fries from Popeyes: maybe there was a piece of chicken skin hidden in the fries and he ate it?  It’s so strange, because I have given him the chicken after I have taken off the skin and he had NEVER had a problem. I don’t know. I’ve worried myself to death over it, but know that Pookah won’t be eating Popeyes anytime soon.

He was fine this morning. And off to school he went to tell the tale of his weekend ride in the “am-pulance.”

But I’ll worry. Because now I think that nothing is safe. Not even the foods I’ve come to rely on to keep him fed.  And what about when I send him to my mom’s for those few days when I go to Blogher? What if something happens then? I know my mother and father will know how to give the epipen, but they will have to drive him to the hospital since they live in the country. What if they don’t recognize the signs quickly enough?  What if he is at school and they don’t recognize the signs? Because initially, he didn’t have the hives, he didn’t blow up. It was just some sneezing and his nose. I’m so scared now. What if CDub is home alone with him and HE doesn’t recognize it??????

I’m trying to pull myself off the ledge because I know that I can’t watch him all the time. I know I have to trust in the God and the people who watch him everyday.

But it’s so hard to watch your baby’s body turning against him. To watch him struggle to breathe while you are praying the the epi pen works. I don’t want my baby to have to go through that again.

I just want this all to go away and never happen again.

I don’t think I could take it.