Life is Better than Good.: ER Scare.

It wouldn't be an eventful Christmas break without an ER visit. So yes, we have known for a while now that Gage is allergic to tree nuts. He isn't allergic to ALL tree nuts but he is to most of them so we just stay away from all of them. Typically its not a huge inconvenience and tree nuts are easy to stay away from EXCEPT when chocolate is around. Ding ding ding.....Christmas time.

So here is how it all went down.

The day after Christmas we were at the Farm at my Mom and Dad's to celebrate Christmas with our family from Asheville. We played all day and had just finished dinner when one of my nieces asked if Gage could have a piece of chocolate (my mom had a box of assorted chocolates on the counter). I said sure, just check the label. Gage said he wanted red so Piper looked at the box and saw that the red one was milk chocolate. I told her he could have it. So he ate it.

2 minutes later he told Erik he had to throw up. He was kinda of spitting up but nothing too worrisome. Minutes later his face was red and he had some hives around his mouth. He was not swallowing his slobber and seemed a little out of it (NOT like himself). At this point I immediately thought about the chocolate. I assumed that the chocolates must have been made in a factory with tree nuts (which doesn't typically bother Gage) so we decided to get him some benadryl. Side note: I did not have his epi-pens with me (won't make that mistake again) and I have never had to use them. If I had had them, I would have used them this time. My mom did not have kids benadryl so we opened an adult capsule and tried to make Gage take half of it. Well, it must have been nasty because he spit it out.

So, Erik said, I'll go to the store and get kids benadryl. I decided that Gage and I should ride with him so that we could give Gage the medicine right away. We gave Gage the medicine in the car and headed back to my Mom and Dads. I contemplated while we were sitting in the parking lot if we should go ahead and go to the ER or not but I couldn't really tell if his condition had worsened because it was so dark. We decided to wait on the ER, hoping that the benadryl would help (plus my sister is a nurse and she was there so I wanted her to check him out after the benadryl). At this point, his symptoms seemed to be about the same with some added coughing.

Well, when we got back to my Mom and Dads, Erik carried him back into the barn and I immediately broke down.....he looked AWFUL. His entire face (including ears) were red, he had hives all over his face, he was coughing, seemed like he couldn't swallow, and he was REALLY out of it. Erik and I immediately got back into the car and headed to the ER at the hospital in Lincolnton. I cried the whole way there. It is terrifying when something happens to your child. Even though we knew what it was, its so scary. I cannot imagine having a child that is sick with an incurable illness, makes me sick to my stomach.

Anyways, Erik dropped Gage and I off and he went and parked the car. I walked into the ER and wanted to faint, there were at least 30-40 people waiting. I went up to the desk and the lady said, "Can I help....oh my goodness". She didn't even finish her question. She immediately called for an emergency doctor and got us to a room. 3 nurses and a doctor came in right away and went to work. Dr. Thompson (I'll never forget him) listened to his lungs and said his airway was definitely closing (not all the way, thank the Lord). So he gave Gage a breathing treatment, IV and several medications. About 30 minutes later the hives started to go away and he was already looking better. He was super tired from the medications (benadryl was one of them) and fell asleep moments after arriving. The doctor had us stay for a little while just to monitor him. After about a two hour stay, we were ready to go home! Gage never woke up until the next morning, he was exhausted.

We are so thankful for the physicians and nurses at the Lincolnton hospital. They were so quick to help and gave excellent care to Gage. To all doctors and nurses, you have my upmost respect for what you do. THANK YOU!

By the way, I happened to remember to look at the chocolates just to see if in fact it was because the chocolate was made in a factory with other nuts. Well......there happened to be TWO different chocolates wrapped in red. One was a hazelnut truffle :( Totally my fault for not double checking the chocolate.

Moral of the story, never underestimate how severe an allergy can be. Gage had NEVER had a reaction like this one before, not even close. But it doesn't matter. I was careless and unfortunately my child had to suffer because of it. My purse is now stocked with kids benadryl and epi-pens. Although the epi-pens would have helped with the onset of the symptoms, the doctor said we would have had to bring him to the hospital regardless because the reaction was so severe....that made me feel a little better. Definitely an eye opening experience for Erik and I.