Dylan's visit to the Madison ER

By now, most of you have either heard or read on Facebook that we had a pretty scary experience with Dylan last weekend on our way home from Milwaukee. We have known since last June that Dylan is allergic to peanuts. He got tested for a few of the common things like mold, dogs, cats, dairy....and I thought that tree nuts were part of that list. Apparently, he was not tested for those. I was under the impression that he was only allergic to peanuts. Silly me. Talk about feeling like a terrible mom....

Anyways, so we were hungry and Chris thought Culver's sounded good. We stopped in Boondocks, WI (no lie- we were in the middle of nowhere) to grab something to eat. Dylan was super happy to take a break from riding in his carseat and was really goofy during dinner. Then, Chris saw that Carmel Cashew was the flavor of the day...and he can't pass that up. I thought that Dylan and I could have a few bites of Chris' treat. We even looked at eachother and said, "He can have cashews, right?" I thought that since it was a tree nut it was ok. Well, the second that cashew hit his mouth, he spit it out like he was eating poison. His face got really red and he started itching his face and ears. On the way out of the door, I stopped in the bathroom with him, and I noticed little white dots all over his face. I ran outside to Chris who was waiting in the van and told him that we needed to find some Chrildren's Benadryl to give him asap (this was what they told us to do right away if he had a reaction to peanuts like he did last June). I was starting to freak out at this point. Chris was WAY too calm if you ask me. We stopped in one gas station to check for Children's Benadryl and as I had assumed, they don't really carry that in gas stations. He took WAY too much time talking to the clerk at the station asking about where to find a Target, Walgreens, or Walmart.

When Chris returned to the van, Dylan was getting alot worse, fast. His face was starting to puff up, he was starting to itch his throat and he was even looking like he was nodding off! Let's just say total panic from me! Meanwhile, Chris was on the phone with our Pediatrician to see at what point you have to wait to give the EpiPen (we had one with, thank God, since we knew about the peanut allergy). As he talked to them, Dylan threw up on himself and started looking really sleepy- this was when I about had a heart attack. The pediatrician said to go ahead and give the Epipen and then call 911. I kept glancing in the back while driving to see how my baby was doing (I know, probably not the safest but I had to make sure he was still ok). I watched at Chris did the Epipen and Dylan looked at me and Chris like "Oh my gosh! What in the world are you guys doing to me!" I felt so bad for him. Chris remained more calm than probably anyone else I know...which was good. Keep in mind...when we left the gas station, Chris was juggling remembering the directions to the nearest pharmacy, making sure Dylan was ok, talking on the phone to the pediatrician's office and reading up & giving the Epipen.

So, the directions to the pharmacy took us towards cornfields and away from houses and Culver's, which I knew wasn't a good sign. But, the second that Chris gave Dylan the EpiPen (in the van, while driving), his symptoms seemed to disappear almost instantaneously. It was amazing! Dylan started giggling and getting back to his old self again. We had called 911 so they could check Dylan out and let us know what to do next. We told them that we would meet them at a Kwik Trip off of the highway. You would have thought that that would have been a good location and they would get there quickly. Not in the boondocks. The three stooges showed up about 10 minutes later...thank god we were no longer in a life threatening situation. There were three town names on the side of the ambulance, if that gives you any incling as to where we were. They basically said he was ok but to take him to the hospital for follow care and more medication.

Here is our little man right after being admitted to the Madison hosptial. He was still a little puffy and rashy. The stuff on the top of his hands was numbing medication in case they had to do an IV. They told us not to let him push on it or rub it around. As you can see, that didn't go over real well. Who wouldn't want to push on that squishy stuff, really?

They wanted to keep an eye on Dylan for 2 hours to make sure his swelling and other symptoms went down. I was like, "WHOA, 2 hours! This is going to be a long night!" We had gotten to the hospital at 8pm...that meant we wouldn't leave until after 10 and then we still had to pick up medication AND drive all the way back to Hudson!. We got home at 3am. It was a long night. Not to mention, keeping a 2 year old entertained and occupied in a hospital bed for that long...exhausting. So, what else to do besides play superman on the doctor's chair?

They had some great people that were in charge of keeping Dylan busy. They brought in this cool movie cart. We picked out Backyardigans but TV really isn't Dylan's thing so that entertainment didn't last a long time. He just wanted to press all of the buttons.

And here he is, with the box for the blocks. I bet I don't have to tell you that he was starting to feel better at this point...

We NEEDED to get out of the room for a little while. So, they let us go for a little walk around the ER. This was a much needed and very nice little break in the action.

Dylan needed 2 doses of Benadryl plus Prednisone while we were there. Come to find out, this is pretty unusual...and serious. At Dylan's follow up ER visit with our pediatrician, I found out that Dylan was not tested for tree nuts. It is safe to assume that Dylan is allergic to all nuts at this point and not chance it. On a scale of 0-4, Dylan is a 3 in the severity of his peanut allergy. Scary. A score of a 3 or 4 brings on the full blown anaphylatic reaction..which he definitely had.

Another interesting thing that they found at this doc visit is that he has a small heart murmur. Wonderful. However, the doc says that this could just be due to his age and/or his traumatic experience combined with the steriods that they prescribed for him. The steriods make him a little bit of a crazy wild man...he eats lots and has a lot of extreme highs and lows with his moods. They will re-check this at his 2 year check up coming up right after his birthday in mid-June. Hopefully, the murmur will just disappear.

When Dylan gets a little older, they will do more extensive allergy testing. For now, we will continue to take that Epipen wherever we go AND Dylan will not eat anything

with any sort of nuts in it...

Sorry this is so long, but I thought some of you would want to know the details of our ordeal. I don't know what I would do if anything ever happend to my little guy. We are so glad everything is ok and that that situation happend with Chris and I and not

when anyone else was babysitting him!