Typical Tuesday

Morning arrives and we all manage to get where we need to be ontime. Colin is out the door, Ethan and I have a little "home school", Mike is at work. By 10am I'm playing freeze tag with Colin's class at recess before helping in his classroom and Mike and Ethan are at story hour at the library. By noon, Ethan and I are home finishing lunch, and making some delicious vegan chocolate chip cookies.

And then, things go haywire!

Ethan puts himself into the big blue recliner with the owl blanket and says he doesn't feel good. Upon closer inspection, I realize his face is getting covered in nasty red hives. It was clear that Mr. Cheeseman was in the beginning stages of an allergic reaction. But to what? Nothing new to eat for lunch... oh wait, we were making a newer cookie recipe. One that uses a walnut butter base to compensate for being egg free. Walnuts?! Ethan begins to tell me that his tongue doesn't feel right and is itchy. And then the mom sense kicks in. As Mike heads back to work after stopping home for lunch, I tell him not to worry, I'll call the allergist and see if we can give him Benadryl. You see, we have to check because the kid is already on every allergy medication and the kitchen sink! By this time, Ethan is telling me he wants to throw up and has decided to try and wipe off his tongue with a dry washcloth. He's never done this before... even when he's gotten hives from trace amounts of egg. I'm only a minute into the phone call with the nurse at the allergists office when she interrupts me to say, "You must give him an Epipen and call 911." And being the good mother I am, I say, "Really? I mean there are hives, but they're not too bad." The answer was, unequivocally, "Yes. Call 911. Now. Tongue issues with a child with multiple allergies is not a good sign." So the heart rate is definitely up and I call Mike to tell him. I locate the Epipen right away... except... well, one big problem. It's expired. I dial 911 and calmly give them our home address. Then I have the pleasure of telling Ethan, who is scratching his face and hanging out with Charlie in the chair, that a few people are coming over and to not worry. Within a minute--sirens blaring and lights ablaze--the first officer arrives. Ethan thinks this is the best thing to happen to a Tuesday afternoon ever. He's being held by Officer Mike! He gets to pretend to blow up a balloon! Soon we're joined by three EMTs from the fire department. I lock the dog in the basement, Mike arrives home, and we begin the process of explaining everything Ethan is allergic to and all of his medications. It's clear he's not in imminent danger or distress, but he does have hives, a huge allergic history, and has never reacted this strongly or quickly before. He's also never had tongue issues or swelling lips either. We make the decision to have him to to the ER after one of the EMTs says, "If it were my son, I'd want to be sure". We were worried that although he appeared ok, he could just have been compensating. And with Ethan, we don't play around with breathing issues. So Ethan and I had our first ambulance ride! The kid thought it was Christmas--despite the itching--strapped into the back, wires, beeping, and non-stop talking. He talked the entire way to the hospital and asked every question imaginable about every single thing in the back of that ambulance. I just took deep breaths and at one point thought, "well, I didn't think this would be how we'd spend this afternoon!" After a thorough check at the ER, some Benadryl, and some steroids, we were free to go. And we're now tree nut free, and peanut free, at our house until further notice. Two more days of steroids too. We are certain his reaction was from wiping his nose with his sleeve (yes, the sinus infections have returned)... he had some trace amounts of the cookie batter with the walnut butter on his sleeve. The transfer is what did it. He didn't even eat the batter or the cookie! Needless to say, those cookies will head to work with Mike tomorrow and the rest of the walnuts are out of the house.
By the time we got back to Whitewater, Ethan was sound asleep. But, once Colin was in the car, he woke up to tell him all about his amazing adventure. "And Officer Mike had a gun. I saw it! And they put a cool thing with a light on my finger and I got to ride into the hospital on one of those awesome beds with the wheels."
We are so fortunate things turned out the way they did, and we're so thankful for the fantastic responders... and our great friends to jumped in to manage Colin after school!

Perhaps it wasn't the most typical Tuesday after all.