You would think that we had an exciting day or something, with 3 blog posts in less than 12 hours.

This morning we were doing day 2 of ethan's egg challenge. The first day we were supposed to touch the egg to his lip and wait a while. If there was no reaction, we would proceed to give him a small amount of egg to eat and that would be it for the day. The amount we gave him was no larger than 1/8 inch diameter. Almost a ridiculously small amount.

Day 2 (today) we would start by giving him a miniscule amount, wait 30 minutes. If there was no reaction, give him a piece that was a little bit bigger. I would estimate that the second piece we gave him was 1/8" by 1/4", so about double his first "dose". We waited an hour or so and he seemed to be doing just fine (my first blog post today). Within the next 1/2 hour or so (about 2 hours after we initially started feeding him egg today), he started to get full-body hives. We gave him a large dose of benadryl and waited 15 minutes. He did not improve, but was not getting any worse. I decided to put a call into the allergist's office just to make sure I was doing what I was supposed to. They advised that if he was not better soon to give him another dose of benadryl and possibly take him to the ER if he did not improve. So, we double dosed him and waited a few more minutes (while I typed my 2nd post). After 15 minutes he was not any better. He had actually gotten much worse. He had hives 2"x3-4" on most folds of his body (inner arm, shoulders, back of knees, legs, groin, armpits, etc.) Anywhere skin touched skin or clothing, he had these huge hives. He started to get hives on top of those hives. His entire body was red and burning. He was shivering and shaking from being so hot (kind of like what you do when you are starting to get a fever). He wasn't having any problems breathing, just horrible hives, so I called my nurse friend to see if she had a blood pressure cuff to check what was going on inside his body. She couldn't find it, so I decided to just take Ethan to the ER just to be safe. I had called ryan and told him to come home from work and started to get the kids ready to go to the hospital. My friend called back and said she had found a blood pressure thing and was going to someone's house to pick it up and would be over in a little while. I told her to not worry about it b/c we were just going to take him in. She offered to take the kids and told me she would be here in a few minutes. So, I started getting Ethan ready to go by having him go potty before we left. I was watching him the whole time just to make sure nothing happened. When he went to wash his hands he said he just didn't feel right and that he felt weird. His whole face was white and he had a purple line around his lips like he was wearing lip liner. He was losing blood pressure and going into shock from the allergic reaction. I quickly laid him flat on the floor and watched him for a second. His color didn't change and at that instant I knew he needed the epi-pen. I yelled to Ryan to get the epi-pen and he fumbled around in the diaper bag for what seemed a lifetime (probably 1/2 a second) and he gave ethan the shot right as my friend walked in the door. After a quick thank-you (and no further instructions for the other kids) I left, carrying Ethan to the car. I sat in the back with him while Ryan drove. Ethan's color wasn't getting any better while he was strapped in his carseat, so I took him out and laid him in my lap. By the time we got to power rd, the hives were gone and his color started to return. We got him to the ER and they got us a room immediately and we waited while they monitored him for several hours. You could still see the red spots from where his hives were, but they were not raised at all. As we were getting ready to be discharged, they gave him some oral prednisone and everything went away. So, he is better at the moment, though they say that he can relapse anytime in the next day, so we still have to watch him for a while.

Some things that we have learned from this:
1. The needle on the epi-pen is long and if you administer it to a thin child, you will bend the needle by hitting the bone. It tears the skin on the way out.
2. A 5 year old will tell you he likes the epi-pen (only after he starts feeling better, of course).
3. The epi-pen is not as scary as it seems.
4. When you need to use the epi-pen, you will know it (if you are watching for the signs).
5. Even a small amount of allergen (1/8" x 1/4" x 1/4") can cause anaphylaxis.
6. Eggs aren't that hard to live without. I would much rather live with my child than with eggs.
7. When you are holding your child in your arms, knowing he is about to die if you do nothing, time goes REALLY SLOWLY.
8. Doctors go crazy on their staff when there is a possibility that their protein extracts may have been bad (maybe left out too long?) and caused a child to go into anaphylactic shock b/c of a negative allergy test that shouldn't have been negative.

Oh, man! I spoke too soon. It has been a couple hours since E ate the egg this morning. I went to check on him, just to be sure. Upon examining him, I realized that he was in the middle of getting full-body hives. His entire body was all red and I started to see little white spots in the middle of all the redness. So, he has a double dose of benadryl and we wait to see if the hives go away.

He does not feel well at all and doesn't want to have anything to do with eggs anymore now that he knows how he reacts to them. Just a few hours ago he was so excited to touch and eat eggs!

Anyway, just wanted to give you guys an update on his allergy status.

We have been doing the egg challenge for 2 days now. Everything seems to be ok. There is no life-threatening reaction so far. He has only eaten about 1/2 tsp of egg (mostly yolk) so far between both days. The first day he did get two red bumps on his face, although I won't go so far as to say they were hives. Today his throat 'felt weird'. We are going to take it much slower than the dr told us to. Tomorrow he is supposed to have a lot of egg (basically the entire egg). I don't think his body is ready for it yet, so we are going to just slowly introduce the egg back in to his diet. The only time you eat a full egg at one time is when you're having boiled/scrambled/fried eggs or something like angel food cake. All the rest of the time, the 1-2 eggs are divided between all the servings of cookies, cake, or whatever you put it in. We just won't have him eat plain egg for a while. So, unless something changes drastically in the next little while, we will be allowing eggs in his diet on a very limited basis. phew!

We are having to slowly introduce eggs to Kate also, since she has never had them before. She seems to be doing just fine, too. That is definitely a relief. We are going to keep them out of Aimee's diet until she is 3yo, though, just to be safe.

I was looking through the cookbooks last night at all the different foods we can have now. I must say that I was really amazed and excited at the same time. It feels like we have a brand new chance at life now.

My camera lens should finally be coming tomorrow. Since the east coast was blanketed in snow for so long, we had to change who we ordered it through and it should be in Phx today. I'll post some samples as soon as I get them. Hopefully my skills (or lack thereof) won't disappoint me.