18 August 2015

On hives and cheating death!

So yeah, on Sunday we all headed to Liverpool to visit Auntie and Niece. This was all very exciting, bags packed, up and out the door by 8.20am (including Husband!), all delirious at the prospect of leaving the shire...then Baby went and had an allergic reaction a mere 2hours after we arrived. 
No joke. At one point we almost called an ambulance. We had walked along the water, met my sister and her family outside the ferry terminal, had a quick coffee and mooched around the Tate. No sooner had we sat down to order food and whoosh, Baby just exploded in a hot, blotchy, itchy rash from his ears right down to his knees. It looked like nettle rash? We have no idea what caused it, he hadn't eaten or drunk anything new, but we knew we needed piriton fast. 
His little eyes were almost puffed closed and he was trying to rip his ears off the sides of his head. It was awful. Cue a mad dash through Liverpool One to find a Boots and then a horrid 20min wait while it started to work and Husband talked to NHS direct.  
Luckily, the piriton did its thing and he settled down for his nap (with Mama constantly checking his breathing!) quite happily. NHS direct had assured us that he didn't need immediate medical attention so we continued with our day, visited the Maritime Museum, had a ride on the big wheel (I nearly vomited every time Toddler got out of his seat, don't do heights, blee!), did an excited dash around the Lego and Disney stores...but 3.5hours later when the piriton started to wear off you could physically see the rash spreading across his face and starting all over again. Something just was not right. He was being such a little trooper and ignoring it best he could, but at one point he had a line of hives across his forehead that were so red and angry I nearly cried. 
The problem now was, you can only have 2 doses of piriton in 24hrs, it's late in the day and we were still 2hrs away from home. I know we could have headed straight to Alder Hey but my gut instinct was that piriton would buy us another 3.5hrs and that a trip to the hospital wasn't strictly necessary, at least not immediately. Having two children is so hard, not least because you're always having to decide what is best for two separate people...I didn't want either of them spending their evening in a Liverpool hospital if we could avoid it, not to mention that Husband had work the next morning... 
So, second dose of piriton, dinner out, then a drive home to drop Toddler at home where Nannie was waiting for him (we'd rung ahead) before a trip to A&E at our local hospital. 
When I undressed him to show the doctor I gasped aloud. It looked like I'd poured a kettle of boiling water all over him. And what did they say? Allergic reaction, nothing we can do!
Apparently, although we would have called it relatively severe, on the official scale of allergic reactions it was mild/medium and unless a child is wheezy then they will not consider further treatment (strong antihistamines/steroids)
We bundled him back up, got him safely home and Husband got the angelcare monitor back out of the loft. They assured me that he wouldn't deteriorate but the soft tick tick tick reassured me every time I stirred and panicked that night. 
It's now Tuesday evening and you wouldn't know anything had occurred. All swelling has gone down, all hives and red patches have faded, appetite and ability to shriek are both back to full power!! As usual, they bounce back and are totally fine long before their Mama recovers from the scare. I'm still lifting his armpits looking for a rash and worrying about every damn thing I offer him to eat...
Husband says we're not leaving the shire again for a long time. Sigh. Any excuse to stay at home!
Tomorrow's post: oven update!!

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