Oh Nuts!!!!

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Last night was really scary.  Like - BEYOND - scary.

Before I get into it - Kaedyn has been through allergy testing.  Back in October of 2011 (when Kaedyn was just 3 years old) ...  he was eating candy corn and had a major allergic reaction where he had monster sized hives all over his body.  He went through Allergy testing and I talked about it in this update (UPDATES: KAEDYN) in April of 2012 ....

So this is Kaedyn yesterday afternoon - before .... it .... all.... happened.

Yesterday was - of course - Rare Disease Day - their thing is jeans for genes and wearing jeans and having jean ribbons .... so of course it's important with us because both Noah and Nathan have rare disorders.

So we had a bag of Caramel Popcorn with Almonds and Cashews.

So I'm going through stuff and trying to organize my bedroom and Kaedyn comes rushing in and his lips are like CRAZY swollen ....  and I put down what I'm doing and he's about to burst into tears.  He's like "Mom my mouth feels weird" ... I said "I can see that, what happened?"  I'm asking him if he got hurt - if he fell - if someone kicked him in the mouth, if he teeth fell out... cuz in my mind, this is OBVIOUSLY some sort of traumatic event that happened to his mouth.

He's like "Mom, NO!  I ate that banana looking thing."

Now I'm thinking he went outside - because he had been in and out all day - and he picked something off a plant that was poisonous to humans, and I need to get him to the ER.

He's like "No MOM! That bag of popcorn."  So I tell him to show me and follow him out, meanwhile I am yelling for DB.  "HONEY WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!"

He hands me the bag of popcorn and I start dumping it out into a bowl.  He described it as ... the white/yellow curved things that looked like a banana."

I'm not kidding, the thought of "What did you think you were eating Runts?" crossed my mind.

So I pick up an almond and he's like "No not that one"

So then I pick up a cashew and he's like "Yeah that's it...."

So DB is like, we're going to the ER now.  He asked me to keep an eye on dinner because he was in the middle of cooking.  He literally grabbed Kaedyn and ran out the door.  Didn't grab a jacket for him or anything, barely got his shoes.  So I walked to the bedroom, and I looked down at my shoes, and I thought - WHY am I staying here?

So I yell for the older kids to finish dinner - as I'm slipping into my shoes.  I run out the door hoping they haven't left yet.  So I see he's still buckling Kaedyn in his carseat and he sees me, says "Are you coming with?"  I said "Yeah."  My phone is dying, I didn't even grab my sweatshirt so all my psoriasis is exposed (well not all of it, but my arms and my chest and my face because I'm wearing a short sleeved shirt.)

.... and I'm cold.

But DB drives to the hospital which is 5 minutes away - shorter time frame to sit there and call 911 and wait for an ambulance.  So he's driving with his hazards on because he's speeding and I realize I'm not even buckled in.  I'm too busy sitting sideways in my seat watching Kaedyn's face swell up.

This is Kaedyn right before we left the house.  You can see his lips are swollen and he has the red lower face, like a beard.  It was hard getting a pic of that, but he had a very distinct line from the bottom of his nose to his neck - it was all red.

DB drops us (Kaedyn and I) off at the door and I grab him and run in.  They get him checked in, and then he gets taken back almost right away.  They do vitals on him, they are getting a room clean at that moment and he's going in that room.   So when it's clean (or almost clean - they were making the bed when we walked in) ... we got taken back.  Kaedyn is just scared .... terrified.  We already warned him they would have to give him a shot (epipen) ...

We had an epipen in the house, because of DB's allergy to Lobster.  However, didn't think it would be a good idea to use it on Kaedyn.  Adult dose.

They get him in the room and all sorts of things start happening.  They wanted him to talk to hear if his throat was swelling and he just wouldn't do it.

One of the first questions we were asked, was ...  "are his lips normally that big?" ....... um NO.

They wanted to get an IV in and give him a shot of epinephrine ....

Here he is getting the epinephrine shot in his leg.

His lower lip was BEYOND swollen.  He was starting to get tiny little hives all over his face, his left eye was turning pink/red.

You can see in this picture that he's starting to improve.  His face is starting to clear up...

 They gave him the epinephrine, some steroids, some benedryl, and with all the meds on bored, he got super tired.

This is a comparison pic.... the top one is when we first got there, the bottom left while he was sleeping, and the bottom right awhile after ... you can see it slowly got a little better and then noticeably got better.

Here is a collage for the scary night :(

After he woke up he asked to watch YouTube....

And I thought his upper lip had completely gone down and it was just his lower lip, until.... he... opened .... his .... mouth....

We were there 4 hours under observation.  But since he was getting better and NOT having a rebound reaction ...  they sent us home.

The nurse gave him a pack of G.I.Joe guys when we left.  She's like "I should have asked you first but he did so good and he really was my bravest patient today."

First we had to go down to the ER Pharmacy - because we were not going home without an epi pen.  They called down prior to our being discharge, and the nurse walked us down.  She told us it should already be ready.  So get down there, hand them the slip, they go - "oh yeah, we got a call about this" ... "It'll be about 20 minutes."   Seriously????

We have to wait, we don't have a choice.

Kaedyn:  "This is going to take forever."
Kaedyn: "I'm bored!"
Kaedyn:  "I just want to go home Mom, I'm so hungry."

The green ones are Kaedyn's - the yellow one is DB's...

We stopped at the store to get him a lunchable and a few other things, because that's what he wanted to eat.  Since he did such a good job, I figured he deserved it.  And he wanted some apple juice.   (you can see both in the picture below on the arm of the couch.) ...

(Added March 1st) So began the fight.  We got home at 11pm and the fight to get ALL the kids to bed started.  So begun the Kaedyn vs. Mom - what was going to fall asleep first, fight.  Well, Mom lost.  I woke up every 2 hours having nightmares and at 4am - this is what I finally found.

So I took the Frankenstein Laptop, put it away, and tucked him in.

So let's talk about this new allergy of his.

He was tested in 2012 - and NOT ONE FOOD ALLERGY came up.  Not one.

So I started researching ....  even though I have the same allergy.  I can eat peanuts and almonds but I am allergic to all other nuts.

List of Tree Nuts

And now we have to really look into getting him one of these.  Also need to get him into his Ped on Monday and get allergy testing done again - ASAP.  

So out of curiosity .... I looked up the ingredients of Candy Corn ... because that's what he was eating when he got his horrible hive reaction in October 2011.

So ........

Do you see what I see?????

"This product was manufactured in a facility where .... TREE NUTS .... are used in the production of other products."

Yep.

SO WHY OH WHY OH WHY .... OH WHY ... didn't they pick up on the TREE NUT allergy when he got tested in 2012????   WHY???

It's scary biznitz ....  Allergies are a SERIOUS issue in our house.  I'm allergic to a lot of things.  The majority of fruits - probably because they are tree dwelling.  I am not allergic to grapes, maybe because they are grown on vines instead?   I am allergic to Tree Nuts also.  Again, I can eat peanuts and almonds but not the rest of the tree nuts.  I am allergic to so much pollen. I am allergic to grass, animals, soaps and other products.  DB is allergic to shellfish and lobster.  He has to carry an epipen as you saw above.  So yeah.  Allergies are no joke in our family.