It's true, I'm not the most
consistent blogger and it does take me some time to sit down and write about things, however, I do like to share as my experiences so thanks for sticking with me.
Last month Alexis had an emergency at school - luckily she's fine but it was rather scary and
definitely eye-opening for the entire school staff.
Here's what happened. Alexis' third grade class was having a pancake breakfast that was to celebrate Washington/Presidents Day. Initially, the children would enter the cafeteria and experience making their own pancake, which would be followed later that day by a full blown pancake lunch including
sausage and cherry crisp.
As usual, I brought Alexis' own pancake batter. She was the first to make her pancake and went off to drama where the children were allowed to eat the snack. Although the drama room door was open, the over powering smell of the other children eating pancakes with milk in them was enough for her histamines to react, although not seriously (she had her daily dose of anti-
histamine medication prior to the event). This of course unknown to me.
After drama, Alexis went off to P.E. where she was to run three laps. Apparently, Alexis began to wheeze on lap two and by lap three was in need of her inhaler. Under watchful eye, Alexis walked back to her classroom. Thankfully her teacher was in the room at the time but they could not find her inhaler. A bit paniced, her teacher brought her to me in the cafeteria. I took one look and litteraly ran to the office. In fact, I don't even rememeber doing so. Upon entering, I yelled at the principal "She needs and inhaler, she needs an inhaler"...the nurse came from another room and promptly unlocked the medicine drawer where thankfully was another students inhaler was stored. The lack of oxygen to her brain was beginning to make her head heart and her lips began to swell. I gave her a double dose of
Benedryl and instructed them to call 911. Why no epi pen...it wasn't with her, the bag was in the classroom.
Due to her history of delayed and secondary crashes, the paramedic started an I.V. tube just
in case we needed to give medicine to her instantly. Thankfully, we did not have to administer epinephrine but of course would have if needed.
One challenging part that I am still dealing with is that I became upset
in front of her. Normally in this type of situation I am calm...not this time, I was shaking and the tears were flowing.
The positive..she's alive and the emergency plan worked although we had errors. Learning from our mistakes we gathered the following Monday with the staff to discuss the event, what we could do better and must be done in the future. Here are the new and improved changes:
1) Prior, Alexis had a full set of medication in her room and a small bag with her lunch containing an epi pen and Benedryl. Now, there is a full set of medicine and inhaler in the following places: a) the office, b) in her lunch box, c) in the classroom.
2) This is the first year she has traveled outside her home room with out a medical bag (small campus, but still not good). Now, when going to different areas on campus, the classroom medical bag will again travel with her to the next destination and given to the adult in charge.
3) Apparently, Alexis had put the inhaler in her desk and forgotten that it was there. Now, she and the teacher are to check the medical bag each day to make sure all the necessary items are in place.
4) Previously we did not have a set of medicine in the office and now we do.
5) At no point is Alexis or any other child allowed to walk alone or go to the bathroom without a buddy. This insures should anything suddenly happen, there is someone available to get help.
After about 4 hours in E.R., Alexis was ready to go. I could tell she was feeling better because was giving the doctor greif about the I.V. in her arm. On the way home she was asking for a play date because she missed school. In fact, she had me call her classroom from E.R. to let them know she was okay.
What an amazing kid I have. I am blessed to have her and Ryan and blessed to be at such a great school where they are working hard so that children like ours can have a "safe" and "normal" education. Thankfully everything turned out fine and we were able to learn from our mistakes, not only for our family but for the food allergic community as well.
