March 2014 Allergy Scare

In mid-March 2014, Michael had an allergic reaction to something he ate at lunch.  He had eaten everything on his plate before, but the ingredient list for Craisins had changed to include refined sunflower oil as a processing agent.  While Michael is not allergic to sunflower oil, we are pretty sure the oil was contaminated with some sort of nut oil. 

Michael first complained of a stomachache after he ate.  I thought he might have some sort of stomach bug since some friends of our family had sick children at the time.  After nearly an hour, the symptoms became much more severe and included vomiting.  It was only when I began cleaning him up that I realized he had hives on his thighs (but only on his thighs).  At that point, things began turning south quickly.  When he began to have sneezing and tongue swelling, I used the epi-pen and called an ambulance.  This reaction was scary because the initial symptoms were so different.  Usually, he has hives by his left eye and I know to give him Benadryl.  That is usually the end of the reaction.  This time, I had no idea I was dealing with an allergen until the reaction had progressed beyond the point that Benadryl would have worked quick enough.

When I grabbed the epinephrine from the cupboard, he started crying.  I cried with him while administering the medicine.  Thankfully, the tongue swelling settled down pretty quickly.  By the time the ambulance arrived, he had improved quite a bit.  Nonetheless, he was transported by ambulance to the hospital for several hours of observation.  

Here he is hanging out in the ER.  What a brave boy!

We just keep praying that he will outgrow these allergies!  His allergist and pediatrician in Rochester both believe that he will, at least, outgrow the milk and the egg allergies.  Even that would be a huge help!  We will soon meet his new allergist in Lubbock and hopefully be able to do more RAST testing this fall to see where things stand for now.