Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Allergies: More of them in my family?

Okay, this is going to be a long post. I'll start at the beginning. Last Friday, I picked Chloe up from school at 12:30 or so as usual. I needed to get a card for a friend and a few other things so I took Chloe with me and we went to the Dollar Tree. While we were there I got a phone call from my 4th grade son, Jeremiah. He told me that he had been stung by a bee and was forming a rash and his teacher had told him to call me. When I'd left the house, Josh was at home, so I called Josh, hoping that I wouldn't have to quit shopping. I wasn't done. Josh was heading into a meeting, so I went ahead and paid for the things I had already and then drove to the school. By the time I got there he was complaining that his arms and legs hurt. I called Josh again and asked him what I should do. He told me to take him to QuickCare, which is basically a doctor's office that you just drop in at, no appointment necessary. But I had to stop by Josh's office first because he had his medical card for the insurance. By the time I got back in the car from getting that Jeremiah said he was having trouble breathing. QuickCare was just a few blocks away, so I still wasn't too worried. But when we got there he was wheezing. They told us that as much trouble as he was having breathing they were going to have us go to the ER. When, we got there he was turning blue. The nurses were mad that they sent us by personal vehicle. Their excuse was they didn't have a doctor in at that moment at QuickCare. At the hospital they gave him two shots of epi and an IV that they gave him steroids through. He wasn't very happy. They had to monitor him for most of the afternoon. We left the hospital and later we went to Celebrate Recovery. While we were there Jeremiah and his friends downstairs in Kids Club decided to have a dance off. They were listening to praise music and dancing and Jeremiah started feeling real tired, so he sat down and soon was struggling to breathe. To the ER we go again. This time no epi. They just had to calm him down and then he started breathing normal again. He had a breathing treatment and a chest xray, which was negative and again we went home. Saturday and Sunday went smoothly. He even went to baseball practice. He was prescribed epi pens and some other pills that I forget what they're called right now. It starts with a p. Anyway, of course the epi pens are only if he gets stung, but he had to take the other stuff for a few days to keep the swelling down. Then, on Monday he went to school and again was playing basketball at recess and got stung. Josh was actually on the way to the school with the epi pens to explain the situation to them and leave them with an epi pen and show them how to use it when his phone rang and it was the school calling to tell him that Jeremiah got stung and was having trouble breathing. This time it only took about ten minutes for him to react to the sting! Josh went there and gave him the epi pen shot (his leg is still sore from that)and then took him to the hospital. He called me and of course, I went to the hospital as soon as I got the message. We had just finished his last series of medications. This time they gave us five days of the pills and wrote another prescription for epi pens, which we promptly went and got. Josh was going to take him to baseball practice, but after the dancing thing on Friday, I suggested that that probably wasn't such a good idea. He agreed and I took him home. He went back to school yesterday, and it was raining (and then snowing, what's up with that?) so I knew we didn't have to worry about bees. Josh went to the school the day before after we got Jeremiah taken care of too see if he could find the nest by the way. He didn't find it. I know there's got to be one there. Anyway, the school day went well yesterday and then he started having trouble breathing on the bus ride home! So, Josh got him breathing better and took him to QuickCare. They drew some blood for testing, which we'll have to wait a few days for. They tested him for allergies I think. So, hopefully we'll have more answers soon. He's home from school today, just cause he's really tired. He didn't get much sleep last night. He said his leg still hurt a lot from the epi pen 2 days earlier. I guess the needles in those things are huge!

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