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NUTS!


[For those of you who could care less about long, rambling, "look what terrible thing happened to us today" posts, just stop reading here.]

So remember when I waxed all poetic in my first post about a year ago - "[blah, blah] welcome to the table [blah, blah]?" Well, be warned: there will no longer be nuts at our table. Ella appears to have a nut allergy.

Of all the allergies in the world to have, why'd it have to be nuts? Why not cauliflower? Cat hair? Pollen? Boys?

Ugh.

So here's the scenario. I'm grooving away at work, actually getting a good bit done. The phone rings (not uncommon). On the other end I hear Ella's babysitter (uncommon). Adriana is the babysitter we use a couple of times a week when Melissa needs some "me" time. She lives on the "Support Site," a large, new military base north of Naples, where there's lots of nice military housing for people who don't want to live on the economy. The commissary and Navy Exchange (think Wal-mart) is there, as is a huge work-out facility, hospital, etc. Its a little slice of America; some might call it a nauseating slice, but its a slice, nonetheless. It certainly has its benefits.

Melissa was getting her hair hi-lighted when Adriana called, else she would have answered her cell. Bottom line: Adriana says Ella is developing a rash, and we need to come get her.

Phil's Mind: "Daughter. Rash. Pick-up. Roger...let me finish this last section of this letter though...."

45 minutes later I arrive at the support site.

Now let me tell you, there's a lot of scenes you look forward to seeing as a father. First steps. Birthdays. First words. First day of school. I could go on. But there's a few you could probably go your whole life without seeing, and pulling up to your babysitters house and seeing an ambulance and police car out front is one of them.

I rush into the house to find 3 large paramedics administering some tests on my daughter. Ella's screaming (she has a uncontrollable fear of anything doctor or medicine related), the babysitter is holding her down, and the other kids at the sitter are buckled with fear. Ella reaches out for me (which immediately tells me she's better than they think), and they whisk us away to the ER. Adriana has given Ella a half of a peanut butter cracker. All the other kids were having them, so the sitter caved. Interestingly, we'd been militantly waiting to give any nut-type food until she was 18 months for FEAR of the peanut allergy.

Fortunately, again, we're on base and the hospital is only a few minutes away (vice 30 from our house in Pozzouli). [Interesting to note here that this is my first ride in an ambulance, ever, which was previously a point of pride in my life. At least they turned on the sirens for me.]

We get there, the hives are in full bloom, Ella is fit to be tied (did I mention she hates doctors?) etc, etc. Oh, and Melissa? Still getting the hair hi-lighted. All she knew was that I was going to pick up Ella cause of some little rash. Good piece of news number 2 - Ella's breathing is so far unaffected. But that rash and the hives and the swelling were hideous.

So we got the Benadryl shot and a dose of epinephrine (which was fun, let me tell you), met back up with Melissa at the hospital, and off we were. Back into a world that seems to have become a little less safe for Ella.

Oh, we did run by the babysitter to try and pay her (she wouldn't accept), and to thank her for calling the ambulance. She may have given her the peanut butter cracker, but if she hadn't done it then, we would have done it from home sooner or later, and been much farther from the hospital as a result.

Now. All that said, I have a little parental suspicion here. The sitter also took the kids outside earlier in the day. Although Ella had pants on and Adriana says she was beside her the whole time, I think (or maybe I just want to think) that a bug bite might actually be the culprit here. She has a small sting-looking whelp on her upper thigh, and my dad is apparently pretty allergic to bee stings. Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part (terrible isn't it, hoping she's allergic to bugs rather than nuts?), but I'm thinking it might have been an insect. Unfortunately we won't know the true culprit until Ella undergoes some allergy testing in the future, which probably won't happen until we get to the states.

So, until then, no nuts for EB.

I celebrated the day by having a PBJ for dinner. With Ella gazing on. Gotta get the peanut butter out of the house somehow I guess!

- pac

PS - I threw in a few unrelated pics, just to liven the post up. Incidentally, she loves the power-wheels; Nash does NOT.