911

I have been down with a cold all weekend. K-man has been complaining of a headache and sore throat. This afternoon about 5 minutes after asking if he could go play with a friend, he calls me feebly from his bedroom. He tells me he is having a stabbing pain in his chest if he moves or takes a deep breath. I do a little web search which keeps telling me he needs to see a doctor right away, but I have my doubts.

In bursts my oldest yelling with slurred speech that her eyes and tongue are swelling. Sure enough they are. I run to the medicine cabinet and get the Benedryl. Of course all I have is children's liquid that expired in May of '09. I give it to her anyway and call my friend Michele, who is a nurse. She tells me that it should be fine, and if it doesn't kick in in the next few minutes to give her more. While we are speaking hives are breaking out all over Mads' face and neck. If you have seen the movie Hitch, she looked just like Will Smith. I started to panic and told Michele I thought I should take her to ER. Michele hopped in her car and came over to stay with my younger kids. I had sent Rick to the store to get more antihistamine. By the time Michele got to my house Mads had hives all over her body and was also starting to panic. We got her up and helped her towards the door. We reached the last step and she passed out. I looked at Michele and said "911?" We called.


Within five minutes there was a paramedic at the door. He didn't have an epi pen, but the ambulance was not far away. They got in and gave her Benedryl by IV and got her on oxygen. About then BK came in, she had called while I was on the phone with 911, so she was in a panic too. The paramedics got her stable and took her to the hospital. She is still there being monitored for a few hours.

I have always sort of poo pooed allergies. Now I know how quickly they can come on, and how scary they can be. I am so glad that she made it home, she had been out running when she started swelling. God was very good to us. I had friends that I could call that knew what to do. I had medication that I could give her to stop the reaction. I am so fortunate. I also have great medical insurance to cover most of it. We are burning through our deductible at an alarming rate, but I guess that is why we have it.




Mads did let me take a picture of her before the ambulance arrived. Sick, I know. We decided it would be laughable moment after it was all said and done. My camera died before I could get a good close-up, I was really worried more about her health than getting a good picture. She forbade me to post the picture on the blog. She was a trooper about the whole thing. Now it will be part of the family lore forever.