Ethan's 911 Adventure

A couple of days ago Ethan got into Jonathan's peanut butter sandwich. Ethan seemed fine and only developed two small hives on his face. Dina called it into his pediatrician's office and they said he was probably fine and to give him peanut butter after 24 hours had passed to double check that he in fact did not have a peanut allergy.

So today, Ethan got some peanut butter at lunch. And within 30 minutes, he had broken out in hives all over his face. Within the hour, his whole face was red and puffy and his eyes were almost swollen shut. His breathing was fine and Ethan was actually acting normally walking around talking and playing. He only got upset when he rubbed his eyes which must have itched and most likely itched even more when he rubbed them. A call to the doctor's office resulted in us being directed to call 911. Dina asked if we could just take him to the hospital and we were instructed not to in case something would happen to him en route to the hospital (as in go into anaphylactic shock).

Amazingly, the paramedics arrived before Dina had even gotten off the phone with the 911 operator (no complaints about how my tax dollars are being spent there!). The paramedics assessed the situation and called for a backup team that was more experienced and more equipped to deal with toddlers (which arrived within 1 minute of them telling us that). They informed us that he should be taken to the hospital for a full evaluation. So after a quick gathering of shoes, Dina and Ethan were taken to the hospital by the paramedics while I stayed home with Jonathan.

After about 2-3 hours, Dina called me to inform me that the standard protocol was to keep him over night for observation as there was a possibility that he could have another allergic reaction once the drugs they gave him wore off (he was given benadryl and epinephrine).

Jonathan and I went to visit them later that night. Ethan looked much better. Almost all the puffiness and the redness was almost entirely gone (except a little around the eyes). He was acting fine and we fully expect to be discharged tomorrow.

So on top of all of Ethan's issues, we find he has a peanut allergy (which is odd because as I am typing this, I recall that Ethan had gotten into some peanut M&Ms about 6 months ago and was fine). We will be told tomorrow what our next steps are (i.e. when he should be taken in for allergy testing, if we need to carry an EpiPen, etc.). We also now must pay very close attention to the ingredients labels of all foods and be very vigilant about watching Ethan when Jonathan wants anything that has nuts in it (as he is quite fond of peanut butter sandwiches now).

- bob