HI, Everyone,
I have visited pretty sporadically over the past year, as everything had been going so smoothly and, after almost 5 years, I must say we had gotten into a groove of sorts. Well, all that changed on Wednesday night, unfortunately, and now I feel almost as frightened as when my daughter was newly diagnosed.
I have read (probably on this board) that no matter how careful you are, when you are dealing with food allergies you can expect a reaction every 3-5 years. Well, seeing as we are coming up on 5 years in July since her first (and only ... we haven't so much as required benadryl over these last several years ... NOTHING), I have started to feel like we have been on borrowed time.
A little history on my daughter first ... she was diagnosed at 19 months with PA and later with an allergy to sesame, but has not tested positive to anything else. We do yearly allergy testing, and her numbers for both PN and sesame have always been really low (very low class 3; >2). She is 6 years old now, and does not have a peanut free school or classroom ... she is not allowed to sit next to anyone eating PN/sesame at lunch and knows that she cannot eat anything other than what I give her or what is approved by me.
We came home from the park on Wednesday night and, like always, my daughter washed her hands well before dinner. There had been a festival in our local park this past weekend, and a friend of mine told me that they had been selling boiled peanuts and that they were all over the place, but I didn't see anything. My daughter had been playing in the mulch with her friends, though, so I don't know if she could have been exposed there or not. (but then, wouldn't she have had some skin symptoms??!!)
We ate dinner, which basically consisted of foods we regularly eat: my husband had made a pizza with rustic crust organic pizza crust, organic valley italian blend cheese, cheese from WFM cheese department, and sauce we always eat. We also had frozen broccoli, and my daughter had a few pieces of the lettuce mix I had bought which we had not eaten before.
Immediately following dinner she told me she felt sick. This was not a red flag, since she had eaten so quickly and I was familiar with all of the foods she had eaten. However, as daddy was bathing her a few minutes later I heard her say that her throat hurt, so my ears pricked up.
I was on alert, but still not convinced. Then she started to do something very strange ... she was spitting, in the tub and in the sink. Well, sometimes when I feel sick ... queasy or nauseated, I feel like that, so I still brushed it off (!).
After her bath, she came into the kitchen, still complaining that she did not feel well, and proceeded to throw up all over the place ... three violent heaves. When I asked her how she felt, she said she felt much better, so I chalked it up to her eating too much and continued to get her ready for bed.
My hubby started cleaning up the mess, and a few minutes later told me that he thought she may be coming down with a cold because her vomit was filled with mucus. Yes, my blood ran cold, but I was STILL in denial. I said to my husband, "hubby, these are all clear cut symptoms of an allergic reaction ... vomiting, sore throat, and congestion" and he was still in disbelief as well.
I am known to be pretty overprotective, and also tend to go worse case scenario for pretty much everything, so the only thing I can tell you is that "trigger finger" kept going through my mind as I envisioned giving her the epi. "Don't jump the gun, be certain of what is happening, as it will trigger a chain of events that will need to be followed through to the letter" is what I continued thinking. We don't even have benadryl in the house, as we have never had to use it, so I asked my hubby to get some benadryl at the store across the street (even though I knew that I had no intention of using it b/c I was not going to take the chance of her getting sleepy and me not being able to see how the symptoms were progressing).
While my husband was gone, I noticed that the entire back of her neck at the hairline and including her ears was bright red, and I remembered reading about that sunburned appearance here. It was then that I knew in my heart what had to be done. When my hubby returned I told him that we needed to give her the epi. He was a little confused, since I had just sent him out for the benadryl, and he tried to convince me that she had just gotten some sun.
Everything happened very quickly in the next couple of minutes ... she developed angry hives all over her body, looked as white as a sheet, and started coughing and wheezing. I am getting tears in my eyes when I think about how long we waited and what could have been. We did not hesitate at that moment, and grabbed the epi. Even though she struggled and I had to hold her down (didn't even consider the fact that this seems to be a two person job) while daddy jabbed her and we slowly counted to ten together, she knew it had to be done and was still extremely brave considering (all the while my 3 year old was wailing, "don't hurt my sister." ... fun stuff).
I cannot believe how much better she felt, almost INSTANTLY. We live very close to the hospital (about 5 minutes at that time of night ... 9:30), so we piled into the car, with the extra epi, and drove to the ER. There I was faced with the question from the admitting nurse "How allergic to peanuts is she?" which almost sent me into a rage. She later explained that she had peanuts in her backpack at the desk and wanted to make sure that my daughter was not inhalation allergic. (?)
We sat down and waited, and by this time it was about 20 minutes after the epi and she started developing hives again, although she was very much wired and feeling fine, playing with her little sister. I went back up to the desk, explaining that I understand there are probably other emergencies, but that my daughter received an epi over 20 minutes ago and it looked like she may need another and did she really want me to give it to her in front of this room full of children? She got us a room immediately.
The rest is just the basics ... she threw up a couple more times as nausea from the epi started to hit her. They monitored her for two hours (three total since the epi was administered), gave her anti-nausea meds so that she could get the steroids and benadryl down, and that was it.
I was rather surprised (but relieved) that they did not send us home with steroids. I remember that with her first and only reaction she had significant facial swelling (none this time), and she was on steroids for two or three days just to get the swelling down. They only told us to give two more doses of benadryl over the next 12 hours, which I did.
Against the doctor's suggestion, I did send her to school the next day. She wanted to go, and I wanted to normalize things as much as possible for her, but I ended up picking her up a couple of hours later as we were both too scared of a biphasic reaction and I wanted her close to me.
Now I don't know what to think! I am trying to see the silver lining of this horrible experience and there definitely is one. My daughter is now 6 years old and has a reaction that she can actually remember and be able to identify symptoms for future reference. While she still has a healthy fear of the epi/needles (before this reaction she knew I carried emergency medication, but never really spoke of it ... later she told me that she knew it was a needle because she saw it on "cloudy with a chance of meatballs!), she knows what its purpose is and knows it works.
Heaven knows my hubby and I also learned a lot. We know that we are capable of doing what we need to do, but also now know not to second guess as much. I mean, what is the worst that can happen giving an epi if it is NOT a reaction? Yet, we now know frighteningly enough what the worst might be if we DON'T give it in enough time.
But there is still the question of what the heck she reacted to? It is so hard to believe that there was no known ingestion of PN/sesame and she reacted that violently! I am extremely careful with her, but seeing as her school/classroom are not PN free, I find it VERY hard to believe that she has NOT come in contact with minute amounts. All of the stuff we ate was pretty basic, and stuff we eat on a regular basis, so I am beside myself right now and trying to keep the fear in check. And yes, I called the pizza crust company, my hubby talked to the cheese department at WFM (he actually used to work there) and I called the salad company (organic girl) about the possibility of Xcontam and got nothing.
Anyway, sorry this is so long. Thank you for letting me tell my story here, and for all I have learned from others' reaction stories. I know I could have done better, but thankfully things worked out well for us and I am left with a far better understanding of what I have to do and when.
Topic: First reaction requiring Epi ... (Read 6073 times)
