The children's Christmas party for Kurt's command was held yesterday because they're going to be deployed at Christmas. Initially when we walked in, I thought it was going to be a complete joke. I wanted to leave right away, but then I also wanted to see some of my new friends, wives of fellow new Chiefs. So we stayed. Plus I didn't want to waste a ferry ticket. ;o)
The party got better after a while. I sat chatting to this lady whose husband works with Kurt, and she has a 6�-month-old who is absolutely adorable! The baby has her mother's red hair and her daddy's blue eyes, just stunningly gorgeous! The mother let me hold her, so now I have complete baby envy.
I want another one!!!!!
*sniff*
We made out like bandits at this party. There were two tickets given out -- one for wives and kids, and one for the active duty personnel. The gifts for the active duty personnel had been purchased by MWR, so they were nice. They gave out at least two iPod Nanos. And no, we didn't win one. We did win a prize purchased by the Family Support Group (the new politically correct name for the good ol' wives' club) -- a cheesy (no pun intended) fondue set. I think we already have a fondue set. What am I going to do with another fondue set???
My friend told me to re-gift it... *wink*
Then we had another drawing just for the kids, and Grace's number came up. She won the big prize!! It's this Pop Onz building set, which is sort of like Legos for babies. We already have a set or two of Pop Onz, so getting another set was AWESOME! I was so thrilled!
"Santa" arrived after the drawing, along with two elves. One of the elves was the Commanding Officer, which cracked me up, and the other elf was the husband of one of my friends. I had to ask how she convinced him to dress up like an elf complete with red tights, and she told me I didn't want to know. I think she repays him with favors, if you know what I mean!!!
Santa gave out all the gifts to the children, and Grace scored an Elmo cell phone, a bendable Pooh Bear, and a coloring book, along with this frog that makes kissing sounds.
The party pretty much was over at that point, and they started giving away the table decorations. So now I have Christmas centerpieces and candles and even some reindeer bells I will put on my front door. My Christmas decorating shopping is done!
But as we left the party, we started noticing that Grace's face was turning red. Kurt thought she'd been poking at her eye because that was the most red, but then there were other parts on her face that were also turning red. Because we were in the area, we stopped at the Coach outlet store, and that's where we really noticed that Grace was getting worse. She was acting totally fine, but she was getting redder and redder, and now she was developing a rash all over her body. Even her ears were swelling up. So we made the decision to head to a hospital.
Once we got to the hospital, the receptionist took one look at Grace (she looked pretty bad at this point, although she was still acting just fine) and told us we could finish the paperwork to register her later, that we would be seen immediately. That made me a little nervous! Within about ten minutes, we were assigned to a room in the emergency room, and five minutes later the doctor had seen us and diagnosed a severe allergic reaction.
Not long after that, she'd had her first dose of Benadryl. Ten minutes later, she had her first dose of steroids to help bring down the inflammation.
Then we started trying to figure out what Grace had eaten in order to cause this allergic reaction. The only thing we could come up with that she'd never had before was peanuts. We'd let her have part of a peanut butter cookie at the party because she was now two, and we thought that was old enough to introduce peanuts. We'd never really prevented her from peanut products (peanuts are everywhere in food, even when you don't realize it), so we didn't think she'd be allergic. But we don't know what else it could have been.
The doctor wrote us a prescription for the steroid to give to Grace at home, as well as an EpiPen Jr, which is an auto-injector filled with a medicine that will open airways that have been constricted due to an allergic reaction. If she has a bad enough allergic reaction and doesn't get the injection, she could die. So now I have to carry this EpiPen with me wherever I go.
The reaction Grace had last night wasn't too severe -- just hives all over her body. It looked bad, but it didn't seem to affect her much. But the doctor told me that exposure to the allergen will cause worse and worse reactions, so it may get to the point where she would need the EpiPen if we're not careful.
Fortunately Grace is seen by her regular pediatrician tomorrow for her normal 2-year checkup. We'll mention this to him, and ask for a referral to an allergist to determine if peanuts are the culprit.
If so, I'm sort of sad about it. Peanuts are so prevalent in food, and they're just darn good! Plus I love peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, and it makes me sad that she probably will never have one.
We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.