Anna's Allergy Attack

Saturday did not go as planned.

Anna had just finished her lunch. Bryan was in the living room eating his lunch while watching college football. Of course, Anna HAD to take a bite of his food too. He gave her a pretzel with a tiny bit of hummus on it . . . an amount maybe the size of the end of my finger. She didn't like it; spit it out. Within 30 seconds, she was batting at her mouth, rubbing with both fists. I tried to give her some milk because we thought she was trying to get the taste out of her mouth. She wouldn't take the milk. Since it was her nap time--well, actually 45 minutes past her nap time, I started with the whole nap routine. When she wouldn't stop rubbing her mouth, we gave her 1 mil of Benadryl just in case. She went to sleep quickly. I mentioned to Bryan after I laid her down (she went to sleep while rocking, which is unusual too), that she was breathing hard before she went to sleep. Something just seemed off; I thought maybe she was really tired from all the errands we ran Saturday morning.

Bryan headed to Home Depot, and I sat down to eat my lunch. And thank God I wasted time on Pinterest and didn't get in the shower as I planned. About 30-40 minutes after I laid her down, I heard her make two yelps. Immediately, I knew something was wrong. I entered her room to find her eyes nearly swollen shut with hives all over her face. It seemed her whole face was red. She was rubbing her eyes as hard as she could.

I scooped her up. Found my purse and dumped its contents until I spotted my phone. Called Bryan for the appropriate Benadryl dosage. Administered the medicine. Called Bryan back. I think I said "We're going to the hospital" just as he was saying "Go to the hospital."

While I got her in the car and drove to the ER at Cook's, Bryan called the triage nurse to let him know we were on our way. Thankfully, we live two minutes from the hospital; and thankfully, as I walked in the door with Anna, the registration lady pointed me to triage without saying a word. A nurse was waiting on me at the door, immediately listening to Anna's lungs and air paths. Hallelujah, only "lightly" wheezing. 

We were whisked (literally it felt like "whisked") away to a triage room. In just the 10 minutes it had been since she had the Benadryl, the hives were noticeably better but still there. Bryan arrived at this point. Here's a pic from the triage tent:

We were taken to a room to wait for the doctor. She still looked like this:

Really, the pics don't do it justice. You can't make out the hives and you can't tell how blood-shot her eyes were, not to mention the hives on her arms and legs. Because the Benadryl thankfully stopped the progression of the attack, we didn't see a doctor for a while.

Here's how we passed the time:

This is how she looked when the doctor came . . . way better, but still swollen enough for a epipen and dose of steroids. We had to wait two more hours to see how she reacted to the meds.

She ate a lot. :-) And was sooooo good the entire time. In fact, the only time she fussed was around 5:00 when I know she was starving. It did freak me out at first that she wasn't crying, i.e. when I got her out of the crib and while it was so intense. She wasn't talking, nothing. But thankfully, after about two hours, she started acting like herself--happy and silly.

Around 8ish, we were hoping to get a clean bill of health to go home. But Bryan and I began to notice a rash around her chin and eyes and hives reappearing in her elbow bends. Thirty minutes later, her eyes were swelling again. The doc checked, gave more meds, and told us to wait another hour.

Here's what Anna wants to tell you: "Mom let me watch three shows (Baby Einstein movies) in a row on her computer!"

By 10:30, the doctor felt comfortable for us to leave. And that we did with three prescriptions in hand. Thank God for an end to a really scary, stressful day. And praise God for keeping our Anna safe.

We emailed Anna's pedi after she went to bed, and I was so impressed that he addressed the situation Sunday morning. He's referred us to a couple of allergists. We are definitely having her tested. We'll keep you updated, dear readers. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes!