Tuesday, June 15, 2010

So now we know...

We had an interesting evening last night....

After meeting up with some teens at a pizza place near by for dinner, we ended up taking a "little" (and we all know that to be a falsehood!) trip to the E.R. last night. After eating some DELICIOUS pizza... have you ever had the kind of pizza with the sauce ON TOP? Gooooooood. Seth loves it and I do too, but I really enjoy it best when we eat it at the pizza parlor and not take it home because when the sauce is on top, it gets cold pretty quickly. Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yes, my daughter's brush with death. Sorry. Pizza distracts this pregnant lady. ;)

One of the teen boys in his kind heartedness toward our girls but in his ignorance of Maddie's food allergies, gave them each a quarter to get a handful of candy from the dispenser machines. Imagine my terror when I look into Maddie's palm to find PEANUT M&Ms there! I pop one in my mouth to confirm that they did indeed contain dreaded peanuts. Maddie had never before actually eaten a peanut before this occasion. We knew she was allergic due to her reactions when someone else ate peanuts and then touched her (hugged her, kissed her, etc.) She once ate off of a spoon that Seth had used to eat peanut butter ice cream with and that ended with her looked like a hive covered lobster.

So.... now she had eaten an undetermined amount of peanuts. What should we expect? We did not know. I looked her over for hives or redness and saw nothing at all. Hmmm. Maybe she is outgrowing this allergy. That would be wonderful! We loaded into our van to run some errands and by then, Maddie started complaining that she didn't feel good. She could not convey to us what the problem was and we still didn't see any of the usual evidences of a reaction but we gave her some benadryl to be safe.

Fast forward 20 minutes and we were hovering over a big pile of vomit in the parking lot of a store. I'm sure I was an interesting sight as I knelt over the blob of half digested pizza, counting how many peanuts I could see! Just what every pregnant lady wants to be doing... carefully examining vomit in a parking lot! LOL!

After another dose of benadryl, we took Maddie home. She was acting much better so we thought that was that. But... more vomiting await us at home. I called the on call pediatrician, who heard the phrase "peanut allergy" and sent us to the E.R. And so to the E.R. we went, where we waited for a few hours to see a doctor for 2.5 minutes, Maddie received a dose of steroid and we went home. A late night but better safe than sorry!

One thing I can be so thankful for (other than the fact that Maddie really was fine once she got all the nut out of her belly) is that even though we ended up waiting for about 4 hrs., two of which we past Maddie's normal bed time, she behaved really really well. I was quite proud of her for being so well behaved in a crowded unpleasant E.R., and for not freaking out when a nurse or doctor examined her.

So now we know what happens with our Madison eats a peanut.

And for this entire morning, Maddie has been the "doctor" for her unwilling patient, Eden.

Love,

3 comments:

missionarymomma said...

Prasie God that nothing more serious happened. Really, you do not know what happens when she eats a peanu because many times the next reaction is worse. It's great you had benadryl on hand. We carry that everywhere. Our son has it in his fanny pack for emergencies. Has your doctor talked to you about having an epi-pen?

Our son had past stings by bees where he would get some hives but his last sting caused an anaphylatic reaction that was terriying. He vomited, hived everywhere and then, quit breathing. At the hospital he hallucinated. We had to cast him on Jesus. Thankfully, he is fine now but we always keep benadryl and an epi-pen on hand just in case.
Blessings,
Sj

jennstar said...

That would be a very alarming experience! All our children have food allergies...but none of them are dangerous!
Glad she is feeling better.
Jenny

Michelle said...

Oh no. My Josiah is also allergic to peanuts. We found out quite early, and by accident as well. So far, he just has the skin rash and slight tongue swelling. So glad she's ok!!