I figured some of you may be curious as to what happened to Mason on Sunday, so instead of telling everyone who asks individually, I figured I would write a post about it.
Sunday we were at a friend's house and I let Mason have some French Onion Sunchips. He is technically allergic to milk, but I have been told by the allergist that if the milk is listed as the 4th ingredient or lower that he can have it. His reaction to milk and eggs is eczema, not anaphylaxis, so he says he needs to continue to be exposed to those allergens so that he does NOT develop an anaphylactic reaction to them.
So the chips had some milk at the bottom of the ingredient list, but I let him have them. He was sitting on my lap eating them. Shortly after he started rubbing his palms together like they were itching. When I flipped them over to inspect the palms I saw they were covered in hives. Then I turned his face to me and saw he had hives all over his chin, and a giant blister on his lip! I panicked slightly but tried to keep my cool. I gave him benadryl and continued to monitor him. I was quite concerned because the hives he had were freakishly similar to the ones he gets when he touches peanuts. I was wondering if the bag was contaminated with nuts or something. I was also thinking about that poor 13 yr old girl who died recently after eating peanut butter tainted rice krispies treats. She didn't have a reaction immediately so her parents gave her Benadryl and monitored her. By the time she had a full blown reaction 20 minutes later both her epi pens couldn't save her and she died. THIS is what is going through my head right now....but I'm trying not to panic.
The hives were gone in minutes and we headed outside to watch a parade, then walked a few blocks to a feast (which was the reason we were down in Utica that morning).
We met up with Joe & Erika and their 2 munchkins at the feast and all Mason wanted was to be held, so I obliged. He fell asleep almost instantly on my shoulder, which is odd for him....even with Benadryl.
I placed him back in the stroller to sleep and about 15 minutes later heard him crying. he had woken up vomiting.
I wasted no time, didn't get him out of the stroller, didn't comfort him...I jabbed him with the epi pen, while shaking like a leaf and freaking out inside. I didn't hesitate. I didn't care if I was overreacting, I just did what I've been told to do when he has a bad reaction like that.
I didn't want to wait, I didn't want to run the risk that I had already waited too long to react.
At this point I'm panicking and shaking like crazy. I strip him out of his vomit covered clothes and hold him. Poor Erika was wonderful and was handing me wipes and trying to clean puke off of us and cleaning it out of my stroller. I can't thank her enough for her calmness in my moment of sheer panic. My checklist starts running through my head:
"1-Administer epinepherine
2- Call 911".
2- Call 911".
Do I call 911 or just take him to the ER myself? Joe calmly assures me I need to take him to be checked out and says he looks very pale, so my Mom and I leave the festival as fast as we can and walk a few blocks back to my car. While in the car on the way to the ER he starts acting super groggy and I can't tell if he's losing consciousness or is just exhausted from the ordeal and the Epi. At that point I pulled over at a Nice N Easy and called 911.
First time ever in my life.
They sent some first responders from the Utica Fire Department and by that time Mason was acting normal and they said that even though he was acting fine now that it could change and he needed to be seen in the ER. Instead of running the risk that he start reacting poorly while in my car, I had them call an ambulance and we rode in that to the ER while Mom drove Aidan in my car and followed behind us.
We were promptly seen in the ER (funny how kids +food allergies+ epi pen used jumps you up in line), where Mason's stats were normal and he was talking to anyone who would give him the time of day. A volunteer even came and gave us a bag of little goodies to play with, which had a lollipop too. He was in heaven.
He was extremely well-behaved and did everything the Dr asked him to (such as "open your mouth and say ah"). By this time all 4 Grandparents were in the ER waiting room with Aidan, who was apparently behaving as well, anxiously waiting for us to be discharged.
He seemed OK, and the ER Dr said there was just something about the milk ingredients that didn't react well with him. He also said that most times in the powdered flavoring for chips that the milk is often uncooked and unpasteurized.....Mason can handle cooked milk products but not raw. (He had pulled up the ingredient list from the internet and gone over it before coming to talk to us.) He gave him a few days of oral steroids to take and wrote me a new script for epi pens before we left.
Thankfully this event had a happy ending, but I tell you what...now I am that super crazy anal allergy mom when it comes to milk. I was never worried about milk before because all it did was flare his eczema, which was treatable. Now I have to seriously watch what I give him because unless I know it's really cooked, it could cause a much more serious reaction!!!
I was also told by the paramedics and the ER Dr that they were impressed that I had actually used teh epi pen because apparently most people wouldn't do it.
I was terrified my child may die. I HAD to use the epi pen.
So thankful Stacy invited me over that night for a stiff drink. I sure needed a friend to cry to that night and a bottle of wine later when she told me I saved my baby's life using that epi pen, I knew I was going to get through it....and be stronger and more ready for it the next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment