Allergic Reaction #2

Well, it's happened. Ruby had another severe allergic reaction today. We knew it was probably inevitable, but it was still shocking and scary. It was the first time I had to use the EpiPen for real, and that was not fun at all. The needle in that sucker is close to an inch long (no exagerration), and it made Ruby bleed really bad onto her pants. She's napping right now, but I'll take pictures when she wakes up. We ended up spending quite a bit of the rest of the afternoon in the ER. If you want to know the full story, read on.  I'll put the pics first.

A flashback of my precious baby girl:

The EpiPen leaves it's mark:

The shot site (the bruise has subsided quite nicely!) :

Just the pants:

Poor Ruby (she's not back to 100% yet):

I'm not feeling well at all today, but I had some errands that I had to run. Our license plate expired today, we had paperwork that had to be mailed out today, and I let Ruby run out of wipes. (With a child who still poops in her diaper at least once a day, wipes are essential.) Since we had to run out anyway, Kyle asked if we'd like to go to lunch. I haven't been able to keep anything down since Sunday, but McAlister's sounded really good, so I decided to give it a shot. I had a chicken salad sandwich, Kyle had a roast beef sandwich, and Ruby had grilled cheese. We had Lays chips, which are fried in corn oil or sunflower oil, and Kyle had mashed potatoes. Ruby had some Teddy Grahams, which are produced in a peanut-free facility. No peanuts anywhere in our vicinity.

About half-way through lunch, Ruby got fairly agitated, and I noticed that she had two hives starting to form and grow on her lips. I gave her a tsp. of Benadryl, and we left the restaurant. By the time we got back to Kyle's work (to drop him off), the hives had not subsided, in fact, they were growing. Ruby was also starting to rub her tongue against her teeth, and scratch at her tongue with her hand. Those are all signs of an anaphylactic reaction, so I chose to give Ruby the EpiPen. That made her even more angry. That needle is *really* big, and it caused her to bleed a lot and get a really big bruise. I held it together, as I drove her to the ER and tried to call Mike.

As soon as we got to the Registration Desk at the E.R., I completely lost it. I started crying really hard (thank you, hormones and sheer panic) and trying to tell them what had happened. They kept saying, "You did a really good job, Mom! She looks like she's doing great!" Thankfully, the EpiPen did exactly what it is supposed to do. It stopped Ruby's reaction cold, and restored her to good health. The ER doctor gave Ruby a stronger medicine that would last longer than the Epinephrine, and they observed Ruby for a while. We have to give her that medicine for the next three days.

Ruby was really worn out when we got home, so she's napping for a little while. We won't be at the skating party tonight. We've had enough excitement for one day.

Please join us in praying that Ruby outgrows this allergy quickly. We love you all!