Drama as usual....

Well things have been a little crazy since my last post. Erin had been quietly brewing a mild food reaction for a week with several bouts of lip swelling and a facial rash. We couldn't work out the trigger as she hadn't eaten anything new, the GP prescribed Piriton which helped each time within 20 minutes or so.

First few reactions gave her quite a pout

That was until Saturday afternoon when I came home from work. I gave Erin a snack of bread stick, cucumber and humous, a regular favourite. Within 5 minutes her lips had swollen to terrifying levels as you can see in the pics below. She was distressed and rubbing her face lots. We gave her Piriton but it made no difference and then she began to choke.......... Her already swollen tonsils did not help the situation and she was gagging repeatedly so we rang for an ambulance.

while we waited on the ambulance

It took 15 minutes for the rapid response paramedic to arrive, thank god she had become more stable and was breathing normally by then. Erin happily cuddled and kissed the nice paramedic until the big ambulance crew arrived who were treated to book reading and singing.....my BP was still sky high but it was helped by how well Erin was coping. So off to Wishaw General we went, Erin and I in the ambulance and Jamie in the car following behind. There was concern the reaction might get worse if the Piriton began to wear off so it was a tense ride for me, Erin quite enjoyed making the Technician sing and looking out the window for birdies.
I have to say the staff we saw at Wishaw were fantastic, it was one of the easiest emergency admissions to date. No A&E, No terrified junior Dr's, no stupid questions or waiting around. She was booked in and sent straight to a room where we saw a very helpful Reg within 20 minutes. She admitted she was out of her depth and called her consultant for advice. They gave her high dose steroids (20mg Pred) and kept her for observation until they were sure her lips had returned to normal, which took 5 hours. We got home exhausted and more than a little shaken at 10pm.

Following the reaction was a few days of diorrhoea, as per usual for Erin so we had to go for bloods for a Tac level check Wednesday morning. We also had an emergency appointment with an Immunologist who was really wonderful. After an in depth review of her history he decided to do allergy testing there and then which was fairly stressful after bloods but at least now we have some answers and a plan.

Erin tested highly positive for allergies to tree nuts (walnut, hazelnut etc), sesame seeds, peas, beans and lentils. She was not allergic to peanuts or eggs which is something I suppose. Due to the nature of her reactions we have to avoid all nuts and pulses in her diet. This pretty much excludes all of her favourite things - humous, lentils, peanut butter, seeded bread to name but a few.

We have been sent on our merry way armed with Epi pens, Piriton, a list of banned foods and a diary to keep a record of what she eats.

Urgh, as if things weren't hard enough.

I know it's not the end of the world and I know we will get used to managing it but I'm still annoyed/sad/angry its happened. There is only a 10% chance she will ever outgrown these allergies so it is yet another thing she will have to contend with for her entire life.

In other news her flipping tonsils are still huge and there is no sign of the emergency referral we are waiting on.......