Friday Night

Friday night we had a church dinner to kick off Missions Weekend at our church. I knew going in that the "international" food theme was risky, so I planned ahead to not serve Ethan from the buffet. Well all went well during dinner. I kept a close eye on him, and then sent him to nursery afterwards. In nursery the 2 workers were eating plates of food from the buffet. I let them know that they needed to put it up and about Ethan's allergy.

Well about 10- 15 minutes later I could hear Ethan crying. He usually never cries in nursery, so I went and got him. He settled down and was letting me hold him (which is odd when so much commotion is going on). A little bit later I put him back in nursery, and the same scenario with him crying happened. When I picked him up he said his belly hurt. I assumed he was getting sick, so I packed us up and went home.

At home he started coughing, and I put him in my bed. Mike was lying with him when the coughing kept getting worse. I came in and grabbed him just before he threw up. I still at this point thought he was coming down with something. I put him in the shower and when I took off his shirt he had hives all over his belly, arms and legs. Hence his belly hurting...

Well of course I was panicked. A peanut allergy can turn bad very quickly and he was very rattley in his chest and wheezy. I gave him 50 mg of benadryl, talked to Dr Carlson, and gave him a steriod breathing treatment. We were at this time about an hour and a half into the reaction which made me feel a little better that it was probably not going to get worse. My Dr wanted me to take him to the ER, but the benadryl was kicking in and his breathing was improving. So I stayed up with him and gave him an extra 25mg benadryl. The hives have let up but now his skin feels like sandpaper.

Ultimately this episode has really hit home about how we manage Ethan. Dr Carlson continually has warned me about the fatalities of peanut allergies. Ethan did not even ingest any peanuts ths episode he mearly came into contact with the allergen. I cannot let him be around kids who have eaten peanut butter, so preschool is not going to happen for him. Going over to friends homes will be difficult at least until he is old enough to manage the allergy. Just wiping peanut butter off a table still leaves traces of the allergen for contact. Kids sticky fingers could touch him...someone at a restaurant could cut his sandwich with a contaminated knife...etc.. So we have been having a little reality check about Ethan's care and safety.

Anyway that has been our weekend ...