Last Monday July 30, 2012, my precious butterfly had her first ambulance ride...I was searching in my living room for little man's sippy cup. He and her were in the kitchen...I guess he thought that it was in the fridge and he opened it. I'm obviously not sure who did it, but one of them pulled a carton of eggs out of the fridge (luckily there were only 3 eggs in it). When I walked back in I saw my precious butterfly sitting in the raw eggs and she had raw eggs all over her and possibly ingested it. I immediately removed her from the mess and cleaned most of it up, then I took her out of her sleeper since it was covered in raw egg. I saw a small patch of hives on her cheek ad I thought that she ingested it, so I called the doctor...that's when my world came crashing down...by the time the secretary answered the phone she had hives all over her face and her face was swelling up like a balloon. I immediately requested a nurse because of the hives, and by the time they got me a nurse her lips had swelled (this is like 5 or 6 minutes after initial exposure). I was panicked and she was crying, because her lips were swollen the nurse I was on the phone with had one of her co-workers call 911; the nurse stayed on the phone with me until the paramedics arrived. While waiting she had me dispense some Children's Benadryl to her in hopes that it would help. Being alone with both he and my son and dear old hubby on his way home on his motorcycle I had no one to stay with little man if hubby wasn't home.
Once the paramedics arrived I was panicked and scared and shaking from the fear that something bad was going to happen to my precious butterfly. They assessed her and we talked about what happened, they informed me that she needed to go to the hospital I asked about my son, they told me that he couldn't go too. I was now stuck, let them take her alone and follow with my son in our car or hope that my husband makes it home before we had to go. I told them I didn't want them to take her alone and begged them to please wait that my husband was on his way home on his motorcycle I had no way to call to tell him what happened. As the paramedics told me that we had to leave immediately, I heard my little man say "Hi daddy!" I ran over to our slider and sreamed, "Get up here now!!!" The firemen stayed with little man until hubby got to the apartment. I was being rushed down the hall to the waiting ambulance with the paramedics and I heard little man running down the hall after me saying, "momma, momma!" One of the fireman ran after him to keep him until hubby could get up to the apartment. Hubby had gotten up the stairs as I was at the end of the hall and I heard him ask what had happened and then we were gone down the stairs to the waiting ambulance. As I walked out into the sun I realized precious butterfly was in nothing but her diaper and that I had no clothes in her diaper bag to change her into. I saw a paramedic grab a carseat and I climbed into the back of the ambulance with my precious butterfly who was still not doing so well and getting worse.
Once they strapped the carseat to the stretcher, I put her in it. It was unfortunately not set up for her properly, but atleast I tightened the straps to help keep her safe. She cried most of the ride, then she got silent...that's when the paramedic reminded me that it was the Benadryl...phew, she was still awake and breathing...the ride seemed to take forever, but I just kept telling her I was right there and that it was all going to be ok. When we finally arrived at the hospital, the driving paramedic opened the back door and helped me down and out of the ambulance, then the paramedic that rode in the back with me got her out of the carseat and hded her down to me. They wanted to have me get out first so that if I fell only I would get hurt...we then walked into the emergency room where 2 nurses were waiting to talk to me and get her vital signs...
I thanked the paramedics and waited for hubby to arrive. Once hubby arrived, he was in utter shock as to how she looked, he didn't recognize her. It was very hard for me to stay compsed once I saw him, but I knew I needed to so that precious butterfly would stay calm. It was difficult waiting more than anything for the doctor to come in and see her. When he did finally come in he said it was an allergic reaction to the eggs and that they wanted to keep her for a few hours to be sure there wasn't going to be a secondary reaction. He ordered prednisone steroids, which we were never given until the doctor came back in and told us they were releasing her. At that point I chimed in she never got the prednisone and he said he'd take care of it, and that before she went to bed to give her another dose of Benadryl. He also prescribed four more days of prednisone for her to be sure and said to avoid eggs until we see an allergist to determine the extent of the allergy. I asked that since she was still breastfeeding exclusively with solids added to her diet if I needed to refrain from eggs too, he said yes...
