Around noon today C was helping me put away clothes (aka, promptly knocking over any folded pile of clothes in site) when he fell 2 feet off our bed and onto his head. He immediately started screaming, I picked him up and then he passed out for a few seconds. I panic, nearly call 911, but 2 seconds before doing that I got my wits back and instead threw him in the car and got to urgent care. He's fine, of course. What I learned is that some kids will hold their breath and pass out briefly. So the utter panic that raced threw me was mostly all for not. But hey, at least I know that I react quickly in an emergency. I am also a breath holder when I'm in pain. I wonder if I ever passed out from it as a young child??
Oh yea, it gets better... so we got lunch and ate and then played for a few minutes. Then I decided we need to get those clothes done. So we go back into the bedroom and I was putting clothes on hangers while Cal was practicing his walking moves. I noticed he tried to grab at the hangers (love those huggy hangers!) and so as I'm telling him no, he slips and I swear to you, he landed on his head again. At least this time he was already on the floor but I swear as God as my witness that he did something and bonked that baby head again. This time I was quick enough to remember our friend Andy saying that if they hold their breath, to blow in their face, so I immediately started blowing in his face and praying for him to not pass out again. I don't know if mommy could take that 2 times in one day. But alas, he was fine so we decided he was going to be the safest in his crib and that it really seemed past naptime. So he's sleeping soundly now. Bless his heart.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Peanutbutter and Jelly Sandwiches
A week before C’s first birthday, we went hiking up in the mountains. I never posted about that day as it has haunted me ever since. I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I made him a special sandwich without the peanut butter, thinking that he could choke since it was sticky. But when I got them out, he wanted mine so I let him have a bite. The first bite had no peanut butter. He had another bite, this one with peanut butter. One tiny bite. Almost immediately he started coughing, like he was choking on it. Within a minute came the vomit. Neither I nor my husband knew about peanut allergies or that vomit indicated a severe allergic reaction. I had heard of breathing problems with allergic reactions so I watched for that. I even did a calculation in my head of how long it would take me to run with him to get back down the mountain; we were in a relatively remote area. But his breathing was ok and a couple minutes later, he wanted to crawl around on the ground. I thought he was fine. I thought maybe the altitude was bothering him or the baby Bjorn was making his belly hurt. We casually hiked back down the mountain, he had some (rice) milk and we drove home. A few hours later, he vomited again. While changing his puke soaked clothes, I noticed a rash around his stomach. I thought maybe he got into something in the mountains (but really that was unlikely) so I put him in the bath. Whoops! Don't do that if you have hives (I've never had hives in my life). The hives spread like crazy so I called the doctor. They instructed me to bring him to urgent care immediately and that if I'd called when he was vomiting, they would've sent an ambulance. I thought I was going to vomit. As soon as we arrived, they brought him back and gave him benadryl and prednisone and he recovered well.
The doctor at the urgent care instructed us to follow up with our primary care doctor and in a very calm way warned us of the reality of this potentially life threatening allergy. She suggested we get him examined and get an Epi-pen as soon as possible.
We got allergy testing done about 6 weeks later (at National Jewish Hospital which is ranked as one of the top hospitals for this and happens to be conveniently located in Denver) and found that indeed he is allergic to milk, eggs, and severely allergic to peanuts. We have an Epi-pen that goes everywhere he goes now. All of his caretakers know how to use the Epi-pen and have lists of all no-no ingredients. When we vacation this summer, I will be sure my family knows how to use it as well, and when to use it. And I will watch like a hawk to make sure he’s not given anything suspect.
Me on the other hand, I feel like nuts are making me nuts. After finding out the severity of his peanut allergy, I would nearly panic when I would walk by the aisle with the peanuts in them at the grocery store. I’m able to casually pretend to ignore that isle now. I’m getting better little by little. I will work on finding the happy medium where I make people aware of his allergies so he doesn’t get sick but I also don’t end up the annoying crazy mom freaking out because some nice lady gave her son a cookie. I have not had that occur yet but I dread the day. Almost all treats either have nuts or are processed in manufacturing places where there are nuts and cross contamination is possible. And things I didn’t think about like some restaurants use peanut oil to fry or cook with. A lot of dog food is processed with nuts. And of course he’s too little to understand any of this, though I do talk to him about it, and he’s at the stage where everything goes in his mouth. Wade is much less concerned than I am, which is good but makes me slightly crazy too.
I’m trying to educate myself about his allergy but it’s really hard for me to do so. Every time I start looking things up I find stories that break my heart. My heart breaks for the other families and it breaks especially for my son.
Today I am posting a couple photos from the day we hiked; the day we found out he was allergic. They are really nice photos but looking at them makes me wince and gives me a pit in my stomach. I feel like if I share them, somehow that burden may be lifted a little, so here they are. Please enjoy.
The doctor at the urgent care instructed us to follow up with our primary care doctor and in a very calm way warned us of the reality of this potentially life threatening allergy. She suggested we get him examined and get an Epi-pen as soon as possible.
We got allergy testing done about 6 weeks later (at National Jewish Hospital which is ranked as one of the top hospitals for this and happens to be conveniently located in Denver) and found that indeed he is allergic to milk, eggs, and severely allergic to peanuts. We have an Epi-pen that goes everywhere he goes now. All of his caretakers know how to use the Epi-pen and have lists of all no-no ingredients. When we vacation this summer, I will be sure my family knows how to use it as well, and when to use it. And I will watch like a hawk to make sure he’s not given anything suspect.
Me on the other hand, I feel like nuts are making me nuts. After finding out the severity of his peanut allergy, I would nearly panic when I would walk by the aisle with the peanuts in them at the grocery store. I’m able to casually pretend to ignore that isle now. I’m getting better little by little. I will work on finding the happy medium where I make people aware of his allergies so he doesn’t get sick but I also don’t end up the annoying crazy mom freaking out because some nice lady gave her son a cookie. I have not had that occur yet but I dread the day. Almost all treats either have nuts or are processed in manufacturing places where there are nuts and cross contamination is possible. And things I didn’t think about like some restaurants use peanut oil to fry or cook with. A lot of dog food is processed with nuts. And of course he’s too little to understand any of this, though I do talk to him about it, and he’s at the stage where everything goes in his mouth. Wade is much less concerned than I am, which is good but makes me slightly crazy too.
I’m trying to educate myself about his allergy but it’s really hard for me to do so. Every time I start looking things up I find stories that break my heart. My heart breaks for the other families and it breaks especially for my son.
Today I am posting a couple photos from the day we hiked; the day we found out he was allergic. They are really nice photos but looking at them makes me wince and gives me a pit in my stomach. I feel like if I share them, somehow that burden may be lifted a little, so here they are. Please enjoy.
This picture was taken as he was starting to cough from the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Socks = Gawk
Last night as I was letting him pick out which socks he wanted to wear to bed, he said "gawk?" Yes!!! Socks!!! Wonderful work my son, wonderful! But then he slept like, I don't know, something that doesn't sleep well, so I don't think we'll wear gawks to bed anymore. (It was so cold Wade turned the furance on this morning.) I took a picture of him last night so I'll get that posted here later.
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