This Thanksgiving.....

Saturday evening was my worst day as a mom so far. It started out just fine, we were at my moms house for Thanksgiving dinner (early) and we had a wonderful time with our family. Dinner was super yummy as were the pies that followed. Luke ate tons, and particularly enjoyed the fresh pineapple- Of which he ate 2 big bowls. Due to turkey induced comas we decided to spend the night at Moms house and head home first thing in the morning. as i was getting the kids ready for bed Luke began to complain that his mouth hurt- I attributed it to the 2 bowls of pineapple and dismissed it as a natural result of that much fruit acid.

about an hour later Luke started coughing and wheezing really bad, we wondered what brought on this sudden cough. we got him out of bed and realized that he was hardly getting any air in. We decided he needed the ER, so leaving the sleeping kids with my mom, loaded Luke in the van for the 7 minute drive to Northwest Hospital. By the time i had him strapped in his car seat it was apparent this was no croup or whooping cough attack. Luke was barely breathing. i yelled for Mike to throw me the Epi-pen, pulled down his jammies and gave him the shot as mike pulled out of the driveway. Lets just say this year for thanksgiving i am VERY thankful for Epi-pens. we weren't even out from in front of my moms house when the epi started to work and Lukes breathing eased. it was still a very tense drive and looking back, i wish we would have called 911.

We finally got to the hospital- the longest 7 minutes of my life, and i was so glad to be able to pass Luke over to the capable hands of the Doctors and Nurses of Northwest Hospital. They had an IV in him with drugs being pushed within 3 minutes of us walking through the doors. Luke was amazing, i could tell he was terrified but he never even cried- not even when they put his IV in, or pushed drugs that burned. The medication worked so well and so fast, within an hour he was playing I-Spy (which is actually really fun in a hospital room cause there is a ton of stuff!) They watched him for a while and sent us on our way, with a few meds for the next couple of days and strict instructions to call 911 next time!


We are not sure what caused his anaphylactic shock, if there were nuts in something at dinner or we are thinking it could be a new allergy to pineapple. so for now we are thankful to the hospital staff, and the medications that saved our precious child's life. This was indeed a wake-up call to be more vigilant, and ALWAYS carry an epi-pen. Luke has now moved from the "severe" to the "life-threatening" level of allergy and to be honest that scares me to death. I know the first time with Anaphyalcic shock is slow to progress and after that it is quick and awful. This was our practice run, our "get out of jail free card", if you will. Next time we probably won't have the luxury of debating on whats going on, or driving him ourselves, but next time we will know what to look for and be prepared.