Tuesday, July 17, 2012

anaphylaxis, ambulance, and blogtherapy

9am: send children out to throw old grapes into the chicken pen

9:10am: izzy unlocks the gate and reed gets into the coop...and touches raw egg (yes...just touches)

9:20am: reed's face starts to itch

9:25am: one eye is swollen shut and his whole face is getting bigger by the minute

9:30am: leave for vandy (weren't we just there on sunday for stitches?)
9:45am: reed's throat is swelling shut. his words are coming out sounding thick and he keeps clawing at his neck. his lips turned a freakish grey/white color
also 9:45am: i stick reed in the thigh with his epipen and count 10 (which he freaks out about..i would too i guess)

9:50am: i call an ambulance to meet us on the road
10:10am: we arrive in the children's e.r.
yes, this was the scarriest reaction yet. somehow i managed to only cry a little. he kept asking me to hold him in the car. i held him in the ambulance.
later, when we were settled in the critical care unit and he was being monitored by doctors and i calmed down a little i realized a few things
mostly, i was hungry and had to pee like a racehorse
also:
1. i was gross. yes. gross. i had just finished working out and running right before i sent the kids out to feed the chickens. so i was just nasty.
2. i had not shaved my legs. eww. also nasty.
3. i was missing a semi-important piece of undergarments...oops
4. i was in my summer pjs which i had changed into so i could clean the house
5. was this a lesson in humility? i think yes.

i was told that his epi pen was EXPIRED! thank God it still worked enough to keep him breathing and awake. i feel like such a terrible human for not checking them every month to make sure they're ok. at least i checked the color and since it wasn't cloudy or brown i figured it was still fine. it was fine enough to save his life. needless to say i have a new package of epi pens from the vandy pharmacy.

some of the nurses and the doctor that did his knee stitches sunday night came by to say hi. see...i told you he's the next tim taylor :) soon he will have his own room and his own mug with his name on it.

reed is currently taking a nap in his own bed. his face looks like he's been in a fight. all red and blochy and his eyes are still a little swollen. i have to watch him closely for the next 18 hours to make sure he doesn't relapse when the epinephrine wears off. will i sleep tonight? i highly doubt it. and reed will be right next to me the whole night.

thank you Jesus for my little boys life

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.