Cross contamination-- probably peanut

[CMdeux]

So.


DD got epinephrine today at my house.

Because I was careless.  Because she was careless. 

Because she doesn't LIVE here, and like most of us with kids her age.... I've now started to once in a while buy things that are cross contaminated-- often without even thinking about that cross-contamination.    But because she is still new to NOT living here, and because our house has always been safe... she often THINKS that I've checked things even if I haven't. 


I bought meringue cookies.   DD's cooked egg tolerance is VERY high at this point-- definitely high enough that the basic ingredients should have been fine, at least for the three bite-sized (no, literally-- maybe 1tsp each) cookies she ate.  I offered them without even THINKING about it.   

But NOPE.... 

started with that itchy mouth, ughhhh... wow, guess egg tolerance isn't that good after all.... disappointing...

benadryl, then.
five minutes--



.... metallic, funky taste,

she asked for her backpack (with her epipens) then feeling something in her throat, like-- swallowing past swelling. 

I finally think to look at the damned LABEL.... realizing that I hadn't actually DONE that...

sure enough-- shared facility with peanut, tree nuts.      I am no longer thinking of this as a contact reaction to egg... now I am scared. 




At this point I offered her epinephrine-- said "look- you can see if it helps, I have lots that is expired, just use one and see-- you don't have to call 911, I promise*...)

another minute or two, her arguing....   sneezing (which she blew me off about)

drank more water.....  obsreved that her boyfriend and I "sounded like the Sims."

Her color looked... OFF...

I made her lie down...

wanted a SECOND benadryl....

I pointed out to her that the label had a shared facility warning-- that this might not be egg.

Then dizzy-- and chest tightness.  Sniffling...     About 15 minutes in at this point.

This is when I laid down the law-- either she self-administered, I did, or her boyfriend would.  She was going to, but cried and couldn't... was irrationally complaining about the needle, provoking a panic attack, etc. etc.


Within seconds, she was feeling like she might start vomiting... but this went away pretty quickly, maybe 1-2min?   She did bleed a bit where I'd injected her.

Five minutes later, she apologized for-- and I hope that she pardons me here... _{"for screaming like Mr. B's DS1 about that."}     And admitted that she felt WAY better, chest tightness was just "tight" not "asthma-tight" and she could swallow and wasn't dizzy... her eustachian tubes were still a little puffy, I think.


I knew she was feeling better when she twirled the used epipen and quipped-- "SOoooo... how much do you think Heather Bresch would think this was worth?  What-- 6, 700?"   

They stayed here for another 2hr-- and her boyfriend has instructions (including a grading chart, at least he will in five minutes) to-- at the FIRST sign of any returning symptoms-- hit her with another epipen, have two more on stand-by, and call 911 or transport her himself-- to the ER.  (They live about 5 min from the ER doors-- still faster than an ambulance response to them).









*  We live LITERALLY 2minutes from the ER doors.  Not kidding.  Also true that she is asthmatic, so is her boyfriend, so am I-- and none of us needs the flu, which is endemic here at the moment.  Sitting in the ER for 6hr = bad for other reasons tonight.    Did I mention how much epineephrine we both have?




Feeling pretty beat up right now. 


I still have work to do tonight b/c my boss has a meeting with someone from [spoiler]NQ-- The Gates Foundation  (OMG!! OMG!!  I know!!)[/spoiler]
tomorrow. 


Actually-- maybe no quoting directly from any of this. 

This is definitely the scariest reaction she's had in about five years.    The last one this scary was at the foot of Montmartre in Paris when she was 13.   That one looked like classic asthma-- but rescue meds just weren't helping.   

This was anaphylactic. 

[gvmom]

Very scary! 

Glad your DD is okay.... and that ERs are close by too, just in case.

As a side note, depending, meringue, even though it is cooked, it is still different than cooked like cookies cooked.  Egg tolerances can be tricky, though I'm sure you know that.

Either way, still, sorry all the way around. 

[SkyScorcher]

The meringues weren't even good

(In all seriousness...  what an idiot I am.  Should've read the label when my boyfriend offered me another one out of the carton...)

[GoingNuts]

Yikes!  Sky, I'm glad you're OK. 

Because DS only comes home on school  vacations, we also have "may contains" in the house when he's away.  But I always have warning before he comes home, so I can get rid of them.  And I don't put anything that isn't safe in the toaster oven, for example.  But wow, I can see how that could easily happen. 

Hope both of you can rest and relax at some point today. 

[ajasfolks2]

 

Completely get the changes in home as to safety zone and mind blipping . . . . for everybody!


Hope everybody better today -- this takes its toll on ALL.

[hezzier]

   Hope Sky is feeling ok today!

Interesting about allergens in the house after they move out...I was thinking about this the other day and how we might just stay that way (only tree nuts) because I'd want DS to be able to walk in anytime without feeling like I need to scrub the house down...mind you he's 12 so I have to time to ponder this.

[CMdeux]

The next hurdle is the post-reaction analysis and making sure that DD's boyfriend understands how serious this was.... without scaring him to death, basically. 


The problem is that DD has seldom had hives or any other major cutaneous symptoms since she was 8 or 9, and pretty much never with anaphylaxis in progress since she was about 4.

The most florid cutaneous symptoms she tends to have are 'color changes' which is pretty non-specific.  With this one, she initially went very pale (and this is a particular kind of pallor)-- and later, was flushed, but not in a feverish, blushed, pink kind of way, more of a kind of 'dusky' or 'shadowy' kind of way.  Hard thing to describe.    She also had some conjunctival petechiae-- that is, her eyes looked bloodshot.


This makes it critical for her to have SOMEONE with her who understands to take other symptoms-- like her statements about dissociative/auditory things, dizziness-- very, very seriously.  And to be extremely assertive with medical staff who may not take it seriously as an allergic reaction.  Aside from some asthma or sneezing-- this would have LOOKED to an outside observer a lot like a panic attack.  But it most emphatically was not.  Epinephrine shut it down in about 3-6 minutes.



He tends to worry and internalize things anyway, though-- so I don't want to add to that if he already knows.   But chest tightness, dizziness and thinking things like "Wow.... everyone sounds like the teacher in Charlie Brown..." are NOT good. 

[Macabre]

Oh Sky--wow. Glad you are okay.

[spacecanada]

  I hope everyone is feeling better today.

[PurpleCat]

I missed this when it was posted.  So glad the outcome was good and you are OK!  Scary stuff!  Hope you are feeling better today.

[rebekahc]

Glad you're okay, Sky!