Anaphylactic shocker

[Ferg]

Had an eye opener tonight! Our four year old ate a cashew nut and 5 minutes later had a massive reaction. He regularly eats peanuts and we don't have any family history of this so it was a great shock. A great paramedic followed by blues and twos across the city to the sick kids was a new experience. Stable now and I'm staying over with him tonight. Lots of tests etc tomorrow apparently and a future carrying an epi pen.

He's been such a brave boy though, never flinched with the needles and stuff.

Life has a habit of providing perspective from time to time.

[Gibbo78]

Ferg,

Thoughts with you and your family this evening, hope the wee man has a restful night sleep.

All the best

Marc

[Rusty]

Wow, Glad he is ok now!
Glad you caught it straight away!

[tut]

Weird situation Ferg whereby he is not affected by peanuts, but is by cashews.

Good to see that they sorted it out quickly, Ian had the same with a wasp sting, and that was very close to terminal as we did not know what had caused it, but he also now carries an epidural pen.

tut

[mikeyb13]

Scary. Glad he's recovering

[smee]

Oh dear sorry to hear this. hope he recovers quickly

[keevster]

Glad the guys got there in time, and your son is out of danger, and I understand how you feel, it's a very frightening experience, even for us medics.

[Ferg]

Thanks chaps. He's much better this morning. Back to his normal precocious self. Getting any sleep in the hospital ward was a bit of a challenge. All the medical staff have been great as usual.

[Rich H]

Glad he's OK!

[Peter76]

Hi Ferg, glad he made it through that. When I was 16, 20 years ago now (wow), someone took cakes into my sisters work (she was 20), she didn't realise there were almonds in whichever one she was eating, had an anaphylactic shock, and unfortunately never made it. Big shock and totally unexpected. She knew she shouldn't eat nuts but had never had a reaction that severe. I'm sure I don't need to tell you to be VERY CAREFUL about what he eats in the future, but I will anyway. People make jokes about all the warnings that come on food packaging these days like 'may contain traces of nuts' or 'cannot guarantee free from traces of nut etc, which hacks me off a bit, but now you've had personal experience, you can see why they do it. My favourite is definitely a bag of nuts that 'contains nuts' though!

My Mum then had alot of involvment with the Anaphylaxis Campaign, and is probably partly responsible for all the nut warnings that are on food labels these days. Loads of info on the anaphylaxis campaign website.

[Cheery]

Glad he's on the mend I'll look out for a prescription for "son of Ferg"!
Hope you both get home to your own beds soon.

Susan

[Dominic]

Life has a habit of providing perspective from time to time.

It does indeed! Good to hear he is on the mend.

[Ferg]

That must have been awful Peter.
I don't think we realised properly how serious it was initially and thankfully we called the ambulance as we recognised the potential for difficulty. It's stories like yours that highlight how much worse it could be and how careful we will now have to be with everything. Nurse has just arrived for some training....

[Peter76]

That must have been awful Peter.
I don't think we realised properly how serious it was initially and thankfully we called the ambulance as we recognised the potential for difficulty. It's stories like yours that highlight how much worse it could be and how careful we will now have to be with everything. Nurse has just arrived for some training....

Not trying to scare you or anything, just wanted to share my experience as obviously it had a very different outcome. Glad he is ok now. Most of the time when I hear anything 'anaphylactic' on TV etc, it is usually followed by a punch line! Not taken very seriously at all.

[Ferg]

You not mixing that up with prophylactic?

It's of course going to radically change our attitude towards food, but we'll find a way that works. I think the potential risk is sinking in, my wife has been pretty upset about the whatifs. It'll take a little getting used to.