It was a typical evening. I just came in from work. I needed to unwind because I was exhausted from being in the office; phone calls, computer issues, files everywhere, etc. I was going to make myself comfortable if it killed me. The evening's snack was cashews and Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey. Yum! I decided to share some cashews with my son. Sure, he asked for some. I did not hesitate giving him some since we polished off a can of peanuts together months ago. I even made the comment, "Why not....it's not like you are allergic to them. Have some." Well, unsuspectingly, our night was in for a big change and a rude awakening. Just because a status is realized one moment in time doesn't mean it will not change down the road. What that means is, my son actually WAS allergic to nuts. I just didn't know it yet.
Approximately eight minutes later, he came into the bedroom complaining of pain in his throat. I was too busy to acknowledge what was happening. I was on a really interesting part of my game on the laptop. I told him to go have a sip of water and relax. He left. He came back in 1-2 minutes...this time crying and holding his throat. He had my attention then. I wasn't sure what the issue was, but I knew I needed to act fast. I threw on some pants and ran him into the car. I still didn't realize it was a reaction from the cashews I had fed him moments ago. To assess the situation, I made sure I asked him if he had trouble breathing. He said 'no'. He also spoke in complete sentences. That lead me to believe that he was not in any immediate danger. So, I decided to drive him to the emergency room myself. Boy, was I totally naive at what was happening. We were lucky that his reaction began mildly. At this point in the event, his symptoms were pain in the throat, pain the chest, swollen lip (which seemed to go down as we approached the hospital).
When we got to the emergency room, we actually had to wait in line. He seemed fine. Once they examined him, they realized that he had an allergic reaction to the cashews since it was the last and only thing he ate. However, they didn't see any reason to give him anything at that moment. He was alert, he was not wheezing, his throat was open, and no vomiting,etc. They told us to take a seat in the waiting room and if we noticed anything new to come back up to triage. Fair enough.
We sat in triage and watched the Monster's High movie. We even discussed what was going on in the movie. Now, this next part will tell you that the symptoms of a child with any type of allergy may differ from the next or each experience of the occurrence may be different from the last. During his very first experience, we would say that he was lucky. The incredible lax behavior of myself and the medical team at the time was a bit off it's game (for lack of a better phase). He didn't have a noticeably severe attack from the cashew.
Well, we were really into the Monster High movie. Minutes later, I look down at him and noticed his eyes were swollen. His entire body was full of welts and bumps. I rushed him into triage where they gave him some Benadryl. Benadryl works nice for allergic reactions. But, still they didn't see the problem he was having. He was beginning his life threatening reaction to the cashew. His process was just off to a slow start. The wheezing began. At this time, the doctor's came out to get him. He was still able to walk himself back into the examination room. Unfortunately, the doctors and a whole team of nurses noticed right away that it was more serious than the triage nurse knew.
The doctor noticed that my son's face was pale and his lips were very white. He was too tired to wake up. I told him that perhaps Benadryl's side effects were taking effect. They witnessed it all too many times. They made a decision to give him the Epi-pen shot along with other medications to offset his allergic reaction. They explained to me that they believe my son is now a Tree Nut allergy kid and they needed to watch him.
I was in Nut Denial! However, I complied. I was numb to the whole idea that things were going to change; right down to the training of how to use the Epi-pen at home. Long story short, we met with an allergist after the hospital stay and was determined that his diagnosis was a true one after he failed the tree nut test with flying colors. Cashews are the most deadly for him.
So.......our journey begins! Mom's job of being proactive begins!
I am now a Tree Nutty Mom.
