Poor Liam had his first trip to the ER this afternoon.
I had just fed Joergen, put him down for a nap, and made myself some lunch when I got a call from Miss Doreen letting me know that Liam had taken 2 bites of his PB&J sandwich, announced that he was "DONE," and promptly broke out in hives all over his face (note that Liam had been eating peanut butter over the past 6 weeks or so without incident!). While I was on the phone with Miss Doreen, Liam's left eye began to swell. I always keep Benedryl in Liam's diaper bag, so I had her give him a dose, but unfortunately in the meantime, the reaction started spreading across his face and his right eye began to swell as well. Within seconds, his eyes were swollen shut. So after a quick call to his pediatrician, who recommended we go straight to the emergency room, I hung up the phone, packed a bag for Joergen, and ran out the door (and, as is our luck, I ran right into a torrential downpour. Could this get worse?!).
When I got to Doreen's to swap kids, I took one look at Liam and knew this was serious. He was almost unrecognizable! I got him in the car and sped off to the hospital, holding his hand from the front seat and asking him questions the whole way to make sure that his throat wasn't also swelling. Fortunately that never happened! The Benedryl made the hives all but disappear, but he just wasn't getting relief in his eyes.
When we got to the ER, they took us in right away. Liam was so quiet (and I think a little scared), but he was his usual charming self with the nurses, who fell in love with him immediately! He was so proud of his hospital bracelet (just like Mommy's and Joergen's!), and even got a little glowing sensor taped to his finger that plugged him in to the monitors. And then... then he got his own tv with his very own remote. He just had to keep straining to see out of those poor little eyes!
Liam got a big shot of a steroid, followed by a mega-dose of Benedryl (which, by the way, does not make Liam drowsy. At all.), followed by eye drops, and then we just had to wait... and wait... and wait to see if it would work. In the meantime, we were blessed with the most fantastic nurse, who brought Liam a new distraction about every 30 minutes. What would we have done without her?! Here's Liam with his popsicle and his Spongebob coloring book. Hey, this hospital thing is fun, no?
After about 4 and a half hours, we were finally cleared to leave. The swelling in his eyes had gone down a bit, and they were more confident that the reaction wasn't going to get any worse.
Liam is going to be taking the steroid and Benedryl for the next several days, and will carry an Epi-pen with him everywhere he goes for at least the next 3 years. We are going to be making an appointment with a pediatric allergist as well. Oy. Just so thankful that he is okay!
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