Anaphylaxis emergency #1

Well, we're part of the club now. A week on from our first emergency trip to the hospital and I still get upset at times. We do everything humanly possible to prevent contact with all our son's food allergens, but in the end, it happens. I guess that's why we have emergency plans. We actually still don't know what caused his allergic reaction - I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about that.

He was at childcare, seemed a little bit off and slightly itchy during the morning, then in the afternoon while playing outside he really started reacting. Swelling of the skin, vomitted and started going dopey - if you know our son, that is really out of character! The childcare staff rang and kept me informed throughout. In the end, they called an ambulance which got there really quickly. Hubbie got there soon after and I met them at emergency department of the hospital. The staff were super.

The ambulance paramedics gave him an adrenaline shot on the way to hospital and by the time they arrived, our son was chatting away happily, wanting to know the name and purpose for everything. We had to stay at hospital for four hours of monitoring, and I am also thankful that he didn't have any secondary reaction. We know this time at least, that the adrenaline worked well, along with his antihistimine.

In the grand scheme of things, everything has worked out really well. But, certainly for the first few days, I couldn't tell the story without bursting into tears. Our son? Well, this all happened on Friday, on Sunday, he sat in the car and asked whether he could go in an ambulance again. I said "No, it's someone else's turn today." It's great that he wasn't traumatised by it. I do however get a little sad when he's role playing and ambulances, along with doctors, special masks, heart monitors and blood pressure are all involved. A 2 year old boy should not have to know such detail.

He's back at childcare and I do have to admit my phone was always in arm's reach for the first two days. So far so good, and hopefully there will be considerable time before we have to do that again!

There's little lessons I've learned, and I'll put them in a follow up post.