Saturday, August 29, 2009

and then, all of a sudden...

Today started off as any other day at MamaTea's house - which is to say we didn't really have a concrete plan, but did have a list of many things we could do.

Like freezing sweet corn. Making salsa. Cutting and using the giant bag of apples donated to us from a friend. Shooting some arrows. Catching frogs. Collecting acorns.

Uh....yeah. Searching over that list...I don't see visit urgent care with child having severe reaction to bee sting.

Darn. I must have forgotten to write it down on the list of suggestions.

Ooky, who has been stung numerous times (without reaction) since he was old enough to walk, apparently tangled with the wrong bee today. Perhaps a mad mama who was having a bad day. Or some freak bee with extra terrible poison. Or maybe it was just "one of those things".

About eight minutes after he'd been stung, his ankle started swelling.
About three minutes later, Ooky started complaining about being itchy.
When MamaTea lifted his shirt to investigate the intense itching, she discovered a lovely spattering of hives all over his stomach and chest. Kid you not, if you sat there for a minute, you could watch them pop up on his skin. Kind of like something out of a weird horror flick.

Of course I didn't sit there to watch anything. We quickly plopped ourselves into the speedracer mini van and hightailed it to the nearest Urgent Care. All the while listening to the darling in the backseat coughing. Saying he was going to puke. And becoming less and less able to form actual words because his face or lips or whatever else was becoming nice and fat, getting in the way of itself.

All I could keep thinking was but he's never had a reaction before.

He's fine now. They pumped some good strong meds into Mr. Ooky to reverse the reaction and watched him like a hawk for a couple hours. His heart rate went back to normal, his oxygen levels came up, and he started talking (and making sense) again. Eventually the doctor released him with a couple prescriptions and we were on our way back to normal life.

Well...if you can call our life normal. ;)

If all for spontaneity. I'm down with living a fluid life. But rushing a kid into urgent care with very real thoughts of "just keep breathing, just keep breathing" running through your head was not what I had in mind as spontaneous or fluid. But, in a weird way, its ok.

It makes you stop.
It brings you back.
You take a second look.

You know, life goes on...business as usual...but every so often, all of a sudden, it changes. Things are what they are. And then all of a sudden, they're not.

Life is funny that way. Ain't it?

7 comments:

Beverly said...

Oh, man! I'm glad he's OK. We went on a hike a couple days ago and there was a sign posted warning about bees in the area. I thought about how no one is allergic, but then thought again about how you never know when that might change. I hope that never happens again; how scary!

Stephanie said...

Oh my goodness!
Crazy!
I've never heard of that happening out of the blue!!

DId they send you home with some sort of something for if it happens again?

Frogcreek said...

Oh crap! I often wonder if that will happen to E. He gets stung so many times per year, that I am just waiting for an antihistamine mutiny! Scary stuff! Glad all went well. Fall is nearr and so the bees will take a break and playing outside will be one less threat!

Stacy @ Sweet Sky said...

Oh goodness! I am so glad that Ooky is okay now!

Anonymous said...

I was SO allergic to bees as a kid that I had to keep this anaphylactic stuff with me at all times. Now, when I get stung, all I do is curse and then itch for a while. No biggie. Aren't our bodies incredibly unpredictable??!! So glad Ooky is all right!!

Jennifer said...

Holy crap man! How scary for you all! My little 2 year old foster child had a bad reaction last week and got hives all over. I didn't think too much of it and gave her some benedryl. Then I noticed her right ear was really big, and then we headed to the ER. We still don't know what it was. The only thing she had new was blueberries, but I rubbed one on her arm the other day and no reaction??? J also had a reaction to something one time and we never figured it out. I'm always thankful for the 2 EPI pens that we have on hand. Especially with the number of various kids we have around here. You just never know. My SIL developed a deadly allergy to fish one day when she was 31 years old! She was eating fish sticks with her kids and daycare kids and all of the sudden she started getting puffy and couldn't breath well. Out of nowhere. It's so crazy.
I'm glad he's ok, and I'm sorry you had such a stressful day. Things like that can really put the years on :o)

jessamyn said...

what an experience!
i am so glad to hear he is ok.
perspective comes in many forms.

sending you all love and healing hugs.