Scary Times

Yesterday afternoon, Erin Joy gave me quite the scare.  Hives suddenly covered her body (well, at least her head, stomach, back, and upper arms), she swelled up like a balloon, and she started violently scratching herself.  I called her dermatologist to see if it was perhaps a reaction to the anesthesia from the day before, but I just reached an answering machine so I left a message and called her pediatrician.  He doesn't work on Tuesday.  

I ended up taking her to a walk-in clinic.  By the time we got there, she started wheezing.  She seriously couldn't breathe.  It was very scary.  They gave her an injection of epinephrine which worked immediately.  She started to breathe immediately and the hives magically disappeared.  We had to wait awhile to make sure that she didn't have a reaction to the epinephrine.

It is scary to me because I have no idea what caused her to go into anaphylactic shock.  She ate lunch four hours before she broke out and she didn't eat anything strange like peanuts.  She has eaten peanuts before with no problems.  She ate nothing that she hasn't eaten before.  I wish I knew what triggered her reaction.  I don't think it could have been the anesthesia because it had been over 24 hours since her surgery.  Does anybody know if milk can cause anaphylactic shock??  She had chocolate milk and cheese sauce on her school-lunch-nachos.  I generally limit the amount of dairy products I give both of my girls because they have BOTH shown signs that they are allergic to it.  Not this severe though...just a little tummy trouble and cold-like symptoms.  Can Comet or Windex cause anaphylactic shock?  She had been helping me clean the bathroom right before she started to swell and get hives.

I thought anaphylactic shock was caused by peanuts or bee stings or shellfish.  The doctor said sometimes it can be caused by unknown triggers.  WHAT!!!  I need to know what caused this so it NEVER happens again.  I'm going to talk to her regular pediatrician.  He is very wise and I trust him.  I hope he can point us in the right direction.

She now has an EpiPen.  I get to give her an injection if she ever goes into anaphylactic shock again.  Great.  I have had students with EpiPens and I have always hoped and prayed I would never have to give them an injection.  Now my own daughter has one.  I really, really, really hope I never have to use it.  I hope nobody ever has to use it on her.  Watching her swell up and struggling to breathe was very scary.

After our scary visit to the doctor, we went to the Halloween carnival/trunk-or-treat at our church.  Erin Joy was perfectly fine after her adrenaline shot so I figured we might as well go.  If we didn't go, Rachel would have been furious because she has been looking forward to this for many days.  We are going to another Halloween Carnival on Friday so we will have enough candy to last until Christmas.  Last Christmas, I used Halloween candy to fill their stockings.  I wonder if they will notice if I do it again this year...