The Bartlett Family Blog
  • About Us
  • Blog

My little allergic baby...

12/20/2012

1 Comment

 
I posted THIS on facebook:

Things i learned in the last 24 hours...
1. jackson is VERY allergic to eggs. like, stop breathing and turn blue kind of allergic.
2. if you call 911 and tell them your baby isn't breathing, the entire moraga fire department will show up at your house in about 4 minutes.
3. epinephrine is amazing. and apparently very expensive.
4. chubby baby arms make it impossible to find a vein for an IV.
5. there's nothing like a 24 hour stay in a children's hospital to make you realize how incredibly lucky we are to have two very healthy children.

So now, the real story with a few iphone pics to go along with it (since grabbing my real camera was pretty much the last thing on my mind)... in fact we were in such a hurry (obviously) we forgot the diaper bag, my wallet, my phone, and I rolled out in what was meant to be my PJs to the hospital... these are courtesy of Mark's phone.
allergy1
We decided to give Jackson his first taste of egg last night.  He's never had egg, and we have been avoiding it just in case of any allergies, but decided to give it a go last night.  Mark scrambled some eggs, and gave Jackson some.  And he LOVED it.  He would've eaten a ton, but we only gave him about 5 or 6 bites.  He was really enjoying it, and he didn't get any immediate hives, so we thought that we were all good!  Then about 20 minutes later, he vomited a little bit... nothing too concerning, so we thought maybe the eggs upset his tummy a little.  He did another little vomit, and then he seemed alright after that.  So we gave him a bath, and got him all ready for bed.  I tried to nurse him and he wasn't that interested (which is unusual), so I just put him to bed anyway.  He fell asleep, and then I went to put Riley to bed.

Mark brought him in to Riley's room about 5 minutes later to show me he woke up crying, and now had hives all over his face.  I continued to put Riley to bed and Mark was going to keep Jack up so he could watch him.  he's gotten hives before, but that's as far as his allergic reactions (to unknown things) had progressed.  After I got Riley to sleep, I came down to see Jackson's hives had spread to his legs and his face looked much worse and he was itching like crazy.  I called urgent care, who said they couldn't take us, then called my mom to come watch Ri so we could take Jack to the ER.  My mom came home and as we were getting all packed up to go, Jackson vomited ALL over me.  Twice.  He was covered in hives, and then he started to get all calm, and his breathing slowed and slowed and slowed, until he wasn't breathing and his lips turned blue and he looked like he was just falling asleep, but he wasn't breathing.

I told my mom to call an ambulance, and I ran him outside into the cold air hoping it would wake him up a bit.  He opened his eyes really wide, but was still extremely lethargic, and kept closing his eyes and stopped breathing.  I had to keep saying his name and trying to keep him alert, and it seemed like forever but it was probably only 4 minutes before the ambulance and firetruck arrived.  When they got to our house Jack had regained color, but was still very lethargic and covered in hives.  This earned us an ambulance ride to children's hospital, obviously. 
allergy2
Photos above taken post-epinephrine, benadryl and various other steroids/medicines via IV... he looks normal again!!
When we got to the hospital and got all checked in and registered, we were brought back to a room to wait for a doctor, and the doc took one look at him, and said ummm we need to move him he needs to be upgraded to more urgent... so we brought him to another room where they gave him the epinephrine shot in his leg, followed by the worst baby torture ever.... getting in an IV.  It took multiple tries, and multiple doctors attempting to do it, all the while Jack is screaming like I've never heard before.  They finally got it in, and administered his medicine, and then I got him to sleep.  And then we waited.  And waited.  Sitting in this emergency room, waiting for a room to open up for him upstairs since he was being admitted for the night.   Finally a few hours later (like, 3am) we got upstairs where Jack got his crib so I could at least put him down to sleep.  Of course that only lasted about half an hour, and then he just wanted to be held, so he slept for another few hours on the couch with me.
allergy3
When he woke up in the morning, he was back to his normal self.  His hives were gone, he was happy and talking and laughing, getting mad at me for not letting him get down and crawl, flirting with the nurses, trying to eat the little monitor that was attached to his toes, crawling all over his crib despite the IV still stuck in his arm.  He was a total trooper.  We had to stay for a few more hours so that they could observe him, but finally we got to go home, armed with epi pens and pages of literature on egg allergies.  Oh, and a HEFTY medical bill. But a healthy baby, so that's all that matters. 
allergy4
Overall, it was totally stressful, incredibly scary experience, but everyone's okay.  Babies are resilient little things, I think it will take me a lot longer to recover from that whole experience than him!
1 Comment
Jolene
12/20/2012 08:33:46 am

Wow how darn scary would that have been when Jackson's breath was slowing, and go the emergency services, awesome job getting there so quick. I am glad that he is back to full health now.

PS long time lurker, first comment, love your blog :)

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Check out
    Melissa Bartlett Photography

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2018
    April 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009

    Categories

    All
    10 Months
    11 Months
    12 Months
    14 Months
    15 Months
    16 Months
    17 Months
    18 Months
    1st Trimester
    2nd Trimester
    2 Under 2
    2 Year Old
    3 Months
    3rd Trimester
    3 Year Old
    4 Months
    5 Months
    6 Months
    7 Months
    8 Months
    9 Months
    Allergies
    Babies
    Baby Riley
    Baby Sign
    Birthday
    Birth Story
    Breastfeeding
    Chemistry
    Cole
    Discipline
    Exercise
    Family
    First Birthday
    First Trimester
    Health
    Holidays
    Homeschool
    Iphoneography
    Jackson
    Job
    Landscaping
    Mark
    Milestones
    Monthdays
    Moving
    Newborn
    New House
    New Toy Tuesday
    November School
    Nursery
    October School
    One Year
    Our House
    P365
    Photobooth
    Photo Booth
    Photo Challenges
    Photography
    Photograpy
    Potty Training
    Pregnancy
    Pregnancy #2
    Preschool
    Project 365
    Riley
    Riley's First Birthday
    Scrapbooks
    Siblings
    Sleep
    Sleeping
    Soccer
    Solids
    Speech Therapy
    Swimming
    Tantrums
    Tot School
    Vacation
    Vacations
    Videos
    Vlogs
    Wedding

Proudly powered by Weebly