That Gut Instinct Thing
A few weeks ago, my youngest child had a suspected reaction to peanut butter. As far as reactions go, it wasn’t super dramatic — a weird shuddering reaction to her food, some weird projectile vomiting, and a mild case of hives that passed fairly quickly. She has had peanut butter many times before with no issues, but something about the combination of reactions seemed off.
My gut told me it was a reaction to peanut butter, even as my brain tried to explain it away in a million different ways.
Working on the “just in case” principle, as I do have a family history of food allergies, I phoned it in to our doctor the next day and got a prescription for an epi-pen and a referral to an allergist. Due to COVID-19, it’s hard to get a spot (I was told not everyone is offering appointments at this time for non-emergent cases), and I was told it might be a couple weeks before we heard anything.
Fast forward to last night.
My husband made homemade falafel — something she has had and loved before. We served it with a variety of toppings and salad, but she only had hummus and onion with hers. She has also had those before, and loves them.
After a few bites of the falafel, she rejected it in favour of the hummus — getting it into her mouth as fast as she could. After scooping up a couple tablespoons of it and eating it, she started to get fussy. I thought she was done and went to get a cloth to clean her up. When I got back, she was licking off her fingers and gave a couple of the whole body shudders that I’ve never seen outside of the peanut butter reaction.
Warning bells went off in my head, but everything seemed fine so I started wiping her up. And that’s when the vomiting started.
At this point, I was pretty sure it was a reaction to her food, but still not totally convinced. I doubted myself and I feel shitty for it. I wiped her off as best I could and took her to a washroom to clean her off properly.
That’s when the hives started.
That’s when her lips and tongue started to swell.
That’s when I rushed her downstairs and administered the epi-pen, and scrambled to toss together a bag of stuff and head to the hospital ER.
My 16yr old rode along with us, next to her in the back in case of puke or worsening symptoms. Our hospital is about a 5min drive from our house, thankfully. We were admitted quite quickly, given masks and sent to a waiting room that was strangely empty — seats were tied off to prevent people from using them, everyone was masked, and people were limited to one support person for each patient. We were quite quickly moved to a room and consult with the doctor.
The next few hours were a blur of pacing while holding her in my arms.
Her hives got worse while we were there — covering her entire torso and back, and spreading to her legs and face. She was given medication for the hives and the itching, and then promptly barfed all over me. Clean-up was a challenge as there was no place I could safely set her down, so the nurse did her best to mop us up. This was followed by more medication to settle her stomach, and then more for the hives and itching. She rejected the ring sling (the friction probably made the itchiness unbearable), and just wanted Mama’s arms.
And just wanted Mama to keep moving.
I’d had a long day of gardening prior to this, so by 9:30pm, my hip and knees and back were screaming in agony.It kept her mostly content, though, so I kept doing it — it’s what parents do.
By 10pm, she was mostly back to herself and was trying to play a bit of peekaboo before falling asleep on my shoulder. We were sent home with instructions for today — instructions that included updating our family doctor (DONE) and refilling the epi-pen prescription (off to pick that up shortly).
Today she’s fine, but I’m still a bit shaken.
I’m also wondering what is safe to feed her, as the foods she has reacted to are foods she has had before. Tonight’s menu will be basic meat, veg, and potato, with a side helping of crossed fingers.
I want to give a shout-out to the staff at my local hospital. You were reassuring, helpful, kind, and everything I really needed in that moment. I sincerely hope that I don’t have to repeat this visit but I know that if we do, we are in good hands.