Our Anaphylaxis Story
Part 1 – May 2017
3 days before his 6th birthday my son had his first anaphylactic reaction to peanuts. This came as a complete surprise to us and totally unexpected. As a Daisy First Aid trainer, I know a lot about allergies and anaphylaxis but I never expected this to happen in my own home.
Over the next couple of months I’m going to share our journey and how we adapt to life with a son with a peanut allergy, from this first blog telling you the honest account of what happened, to the hospital tests and anything else that comes our way.
My name is Marie, I run Daisy First Aid in Northampton and surrounding areas. I have a wonderful husband (Rob) and 2 sons Sam who is 6 and Oscar who is 3.
On the Saturday morning before Sam’s 6th birthday I was working, delivering a first aid for parents class. After the class, the plan was to go to the supermarket on my way home to get some treats for a movie afternoon at home. One of the things I chose was a bag of mini KitKats with peanut butter in, I was thinking these would be for the grown ups but the boys got hold of them and the the bag was demolished between the 4 of us very quickly.
I had no reason to suspect anyone would have a reaction to these as we’ve had peanuts in the house at Christmas and we regularly eat peanut butter but if I think about it Sam may not have ever eaten peanuts before as he is a really fussy eater and has never tried peanut butter. He has had other nuts, we’ve had boxes of celebrations in the house, I’m not 100% sure if he has had the chocolates with nuts in or nut. Like every mum I worry about things (most things if I’m honest) I worry about most of the things in our Daisy First Aid classes cover, I’ve spoken about anaphylaxis hundreds of times but until now it was one of the subjects I didn’t actually worry about.
Sam had 4 mini KitKats and instantly started making a gagging noise, complaining that he didn’t like them. When I looked at him I could see his lips were slightly swollen. He was still talking properly and could swallow so I quickly rushed to the kitchen to get him some liquid anti-histamine and phoned 999. From then his lips got more swollen and the back of his throat and tongue started to swell, the pronunciations of his words changed. But as a mum the thing that worried me was that Sam stopped complaining, became quiet and still and he looked scared. One of the signs of anaphylaxis is ‘sense of impending doom’, without a doubt this is how he was feeling.
Unfortunately, there was not an ambulance available so we were advised to go to A&E so we quickly got into the car. I’d always advise anyone to phone 999 in this situation though as you can never know or predict what will happen in these situations. The call handler made the decision that from what we were telling her that this wasn’t life threatening. The car journey to the hospital was very stressful and Sam was violently sick in the car (luckily I had a bucket) and I certainly could not have driven safely to the hospital myself with Sam in the back, my husband drove and I sat in the back of the car with Sam to comfort him and to make sure he was ok, we only live 5 minutes away from the hospital but Sam didn’t say a word the whole time we were in the car, by the time we got there and in the waiting room he was really sleepy.
In A&E he was assessed, given more antihistamines and steroids and got better quickly. After monitoring for a few hours we went home with a prescription for antihistamines and steroids for 5 days and to follow up with the GP on Monday. We were also advised to keep Sam away from peanuts.
I knew he was feeling better when he said he was hungry.
Monday morning came, we were lucky enough to get an appointment at the GP’s first thing and our GP prescribed adrenaline auto injectors (epi pens) and referred him to the allergy clinic.
Sam’s school have been fantastic and supportive, I am fully reassured he is safe there, he has 2 epi pens at school and 2 at home which we now take everywhere. As I know how to use them already, I’ve been able to show my husband and all the grandparents on what to do if he has another reaction. Until Sam has had his tests we will have to be really careful about what he eats and as a family we won’t be eating peanut butter around him. We have had a walk around the supermarket pointing out the foods he cannot eat, as it’s very hard for a 6 year old to understand.
The anaphylaxis campaign website has also been a great resource for me, they provide fantastic information and support to individuals and families with allergies.
Did you know peanut allergies can be airborne? They can also come on from kissing someone who has eaten peanuts and also cross contamination from factories or simply peanut residue on a surface which is transferred to the hand and then to the mouth.
A mum who attended one of my classes once shared a story that she ate peanut butter for breakfast at work one day, went home at tea time, thought nothing of kissing her husband with a peanut allergy hello. He had a reaction from the kiss and had to use his adrenaline auto injector.
Here is Daisy First Aid’s allergy awareness poster for a reminder of the signs and symptoms. Sam didn’t have all of the signs and symptoms, but every reaction is different.
I’ll be sharing more with you in the next couple of weeks but we’d love to hear any anaphylaxis and allergy stories you have. Everyone’s allergies and stories are different.
Thanks for reading,
Marie 🙂