Wednesday, December 16, 2009

More Medical Adventures

Sometimes I wish I had a medical degree. It would certainly be more useful in my role as a mother than the anthropology degree that I currently hold. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to expand my medical knowledge yet as another crisis unfolded with Persephone.

We were sitting at dinner and Persy was picking at her meal and whining about the nuisance and eating when I decided to give her some peanut butter in hopes of enticing her appetite. We had her 18 month appointment earlier in the day and the doctor had cleared me for introducing this new food into her diet. Within seconds of her first lick she began rubbing her eyes and sneezing. I hurried and snatched her from the high chair and immediately ran to the car as hives began to spread across her face.

Even though we live close to medical care, it always seems a long drive to me when I'm fighting traffic and I can't see her from the rear view mirror. Persy was coughing a little and I was quite worried that her respiratory problems would worsen during my drive to Instacare and she might go into anaphylaxis shock.

Fortunately, she remained stable through the drive and with a dose of benadryl her condition improved after a couple of hours of monitoring. I think the benadryl made her a little hyper because she spent the long evening at Instacare running around, saying "hi" to every entering patient, and delighting in the otterpops and suckers that the enamored nurses were supplying. The poor girl looked all swollen like Quasimoto, but she couldn't have cared less.

So, short story long, it looks like we will need to visit an allergist to confirm the peanut allergy. We also have to keep Persy away from any products that may contain peanuts, (which are a lot,) because any additional exposure greatly increases her risk for anaphylaxis shock. This child certainly knows how to keep things lively and expensive!

5 comments:

Michael Carr - Veritas Literary said...

Ugh, that's frustrating. Other than the risk of sudden death, peanuts and peanut butter are the perfect food for kids.

I read this article awhile back and it seems to give hope to parents of kids with peanut allergies.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=7089089&page=1

Missy said...

Wow, how scary! I'm glad you knew what to do!

Elizabeth said...

You are such a good mom. Life always seems to throw curve balls when you least expect them.

PixelFish said...

Oi! Scary! Glad Persy is okay and that you were able to keep your composure. I'm sure it must have been nerve-wracking.

Poor kid though...never being able to eat a Reese's or have Butterfinger shakes or holiday peanut brittle.

It's Miller Time said...

What an adventure! Poor Percy (and mommy) having to deal with all this stuff. I'm glad you got her in quick and nothing too scary happened.