We had way too exciting of a Saturday. Around 3:30 Sullivan started to not feel good. We had just eaten raspberries in our backyard and were playing outside when Sully started pulling at his ear. I walked down to the garage to tell Ben that something seemed off and Sullivan showered me in puke. Awful heaving huge amounts of puke. When he was done there was a puddle at my feet. I took Sully inside to get cleaned up, and noticed he was started to have a red splotchy rash in his arm pits and diaper area. I told Asher to go get Ben, and came downstairs with Sully saying we needed to go to his pediatrician's urgent care clinic as I thought he was having an allergic reaction to raspberries. We checked to see if we had benadryl in the house, which we didn't, and decided Ben would drop us at the clinic and then take Ash to Walgreen's to get medicine.
A block from our house, I told Ben to get on the highway instead and drive to the ER- Sully just didn't seem right. He started screaming and crying and in between being so upset would drift off and close his eyes. When we got to the triage desk he was alert and mad, but in the two minutes we were there things changed quickly. His lips & face started to swell, he lost his color, and his heart rate shot up to 202 with a respiration rate in the 60s. The nurse stopped her assessment and said "We just need a quick weight and then we are going straight back". She led us through the doors and towards the nurse station. As we were walking Sully started to make a low, grunting, wheezing sound and I looked at the nurse and said "He isn't breathing right" and she very calmly said "I know" and took us to a group of providers. A hand off happened and a new nurse took us to a procedure room where the attending physician, resident, pharmacist, respiratory therapist, and team of nurses was waiting. After asking some very quick questions of me, the doctor ordered epinephrine and Sully was given the shot immediately. He lost consciousness several times during the first five minutes before the epi was on board, and while everyone hustled around him, the attending doctor stood right next to me, eyes going back and forth between the vitals monitor and Sullivan, and he calmly called out next instructions... IV steroids, IV benadryl, IV zofran, fluids... and then basically said hold. And we all stood around and waited to see how he would respond to the medications. Every now and then the respiratory therapist would step in and listen to his breathing, the nurses, most of them with a hand on Sully, telling him he was a sweet baby, watched the monitors and watched him. And then his breathing slowed, his heart rate stabilized, and he started to fall asleep with the benadryl. The doctor nodded silently at two of the nurses, excusing them. The respiratory therapist left next. And then I started crying and realized I hadn't taken a big breath in about 15 minutes.
The nurse who helped us had immediately bonded with Sully, as her maiden name had been Sullivan. She said that when they got the alert from the front desk that we were coming back, the charge nurse had said "Sully you better take care of Sully". So we were in great hands there and she was an incredible clinician and caregiver.
We stayed in the ER for a few hours to make sure he didn't have a rebound reaction, which can be common with severe anaphylaxis.
And now we have follow-up appointments with his pediatrician and allergist to come up with some new plans.
And, if you should ever visit us, the Olson house is now officially 100% egg free. Please don't bring anything that contains egg (as much as we love donuts and pies and chinese food...) ... our home is now our safe place for our little guy.
About an hour after getting to the ER, waking up but very drowsy from benadryl.
Starting to feel better and wanting to go home.
:( Poor buddy, and parents! How scary. Any other results besides egg? Love you!
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