This past Saturday night we decided to go out to eat.
Our standard procedure is that we read the kids menu to Katie and allow her to chose what she would like to eat. Most times she will either pick "basgetti and meatballs" or "grilled cheese". This time she chose pancakes and bacon.
Okkaaaaaay. Pancakes, huh? Well, there are eggs in pancakes, but they're cooked. There might be some soy oil in there too. Both shouldn't be a problem. No nuts listed in the pancake description. Bacon is okay. We decided to give it a try, thinking that she would not eat any of it.
After spending some time sucking on the table (yeah. ew.) and trying to wait patiently, a huge pancake finally came out of the kitchen. Much to Katie's delight was shaped like Mickey Mouse. It was topped with two raisins for the eyes and a strawberry for the nose. She dug right into one of the ears, not even asking for any maple syrup.
After a few minutes of munching she stopped and put her hand to her mouth, "Oweee in my mouth."
I felt the pancake to see if it was hot. It was kinda hot. So I asked her, "Is it hot?" She answered in the affirmative. Although, we were a bit nervous about her 'owwweee' and the possibility that she might have ingested something that she was allergic to, she continued to pick at the pancake, eat the strawberry, and move on to some bread and cauliflower from our plates. No other complaints ensued.
After dinner we had to go to the grocery store. Katie was able to push her own kid sized cart through the store and was having a great time being a "big girl".
As we left the grocery store, Katie began to sniffle.
As we got to the car, Katie began to cough.
On the way home she began to cough harder and sounded congested. We gave her some kids Benadryl.
As we pulled into the garage, her coughing would not stop. It was like she couldn't stop to get a breath. I pulled her out of her car seat and she puked all over me.
Shit. This is a big one.
Huzbend had already gone inside to bring in the groceries. I ran into our downstairs bathroom and had Katie hang her head over the toilet. I dropped my purse to the floor and whipped out the EpiPen Jr.. I quickly pulled out the injector and held it in my hand.
Oh, fuck. We're going to have to stick this needle into our little girls leg.
I called up and asked Huzbend to come down, yelling that we needed to use the Pen. He came down and took the injector from me. "Okay. I'll do it. You hold her leg so it doesn't move."
I grabbed her left leg at the knee and held it straight as I could. My other arm was wrapped around her stomach.
SLAM. In went the needle, right into her thigh. In order for all the medication to work it's way out, you have to leave the needle inserted for 10 seconds.
Katie screamed immediately, "Oweeeee! Oweeeeee! Owwwweeeeeeee!" The 10 seconds were finally up and Huzbend went to call 911. I held Katie close as she kept screaming for about 5 minutes after the injection.
As soon as she calmed, it was noticeable that all symptoms of the allergic reaction were gone. It was immediate relief.
I held her as the EMT's came to visit, followed next by the medics. The medics told us that we had to go to the hospital for observation, in case the symptoms returned. Katie and I rode in an ambulance to the ER, while Huzbend followed close behind in the truck.
We spent a couple hours in the ER. Sure enough, Katie's symptoms did start to make a come back. The stuffy nose came back and a little coughing. Then the hives started. First on the backs of her knees and then started to progress to cover her entire legs and both of her arms. She was miserable. Scratching all over, non-stop.
The docs decided that she needed another dose of epinephrine. This time they hit her right leg. Because she was hooked up the monitors, we were able to see the epinephrine in action. Her heart rate shot up past 190 BPM.
Once she settled back down to normal ranges we were ready to go home. The hives mark the end of the allergic reaction. Katie was still miserable, scratching like crazy and was so, so tired. It was 11pm at this time.
We drove home and tried to sleep. Katie ended up staying in bed with me for the majority of the evening because she was having a hard time sleeping with the itch. She kept waking up every hour or so and looking around, sometimes she would say, "Mommy? Are we at home? Did we eat dinner?" and then lay back down.
Believe it or not, she was up at 7:30 am the next day! A little sore in the leg from the EpiPen slam she got, but otherwise normal. We actually went for a hike with friends and held a little picnic back at our place afterwards.
Because of this incident, we have a new plan in place. Anytime Katie is eating and says, "Owee in my mouth" or something to that effect we are going to just stop eating and leave. It doesn't matter if we are done with our meals or not. We're also going to have to start getting obnoxious in our questions to the waiters about what is actually in the food they serve.
So, was it the pancakes? Maybe. They were cooked on a grill with a bunch of other food. Could've been fried with peanut oil? Could've had soy protein isolate in the mix? Well, maybe it was Katie licking the stupid table. Maybe the bread? We'll never know.
I'm glad Huzbend was there with us. I'm not sure how I would've given that injection to Katie on my own. She tried really hard to pull her leg away. It would be hard for me to hold her down and give it at the same time. But, one day I might. I'll just have to do it.
It was a horrible thing to have to do to Katie. But, we remained calm and stopped the reaction.
We ended the night with a great, big parental hug. No words exchanged. Just grateful that we worked through it and that Katie was okay.
