A couple weeks ago it was mentioned on this list that Burger King buns have
milk.  I wondered at the time how my son could eat them without a reaction.
I though, cool, he may finally be outgrowing this.  But still I took the safe
route and went with McDonald's when we had fast food after that.  Well,
tonight he had a major reaction after eating McDonald's.  I'm thinking cross
contamination.  I'm also thinking he is getting to be hair trigger reactive
again.  Or maybe he always was.  I just don't know.  We did have an incident
last Monday where some neighborhood kids chased him with squirt guns and
water balloons they claimed had milk in them.  We saw hives, (maybe a dozen
total and scattered)  I had him take a shower, gave him Benedryl and he
seemed to be fine except for the fear of what happened.  The boys later
claimed it was just water and they wanted to scare my son.  Yes, the mother
of these boys has taken appropriate action.

But tonight, yikes, he started with breathing difficulties.  I gave him
albuterol thinking it was his asthma.  He isn't real good about taking the
maintenance meds in the summer.  When that didn't help at five minutes I was
concerned.  I told Hubby to get the Benedryl.  I gave him more albuterol
while getting out my stethoscope to give him a listen.  I knew right away it
wasn't asthma.  Asthma and anaphylaxis sound different in the lungs.  ( No
medical training, just a Mom)  Hubby gave him Benedryl while I was listening.
 Then I went for the EPI pen and had hubby call 911.  His breathing kept
getting worse even with all the meds.  Then the throat started getting
scratchy.  His ears became bright red and started itching.  Finally the EMT's
arrived.  On the way to the hospital hives appeared on his stomach near his
underwear line( 20 minutes after EPI).  At the hospital the hives kept
spreading to the point that he was a giant hive and red all over.  They gave
him a steroid IV and nebulized albuterol and watched him.  Then his stomach
started to cramp up.  Eventually the reaction resolved.  I think this has
been his worse one.  I think he should have had another dose of EPI, but
since I am severely allergic to natural rubber latex, I couldn't go on the
ambulance or into the hospital.

Yes, I do have a question after all of this.  He is fine now.  No hives,
breathing fine.  Sleeping.  The ER Dr wants him to take Benedryl in the
morning and 60 mg of Prednisone in the afternoon.  And of course follow up
with your Dr.  We have been planning a trip a couple states away ( 8 hours)
all summer.  Any suggestions on how long to wait after a reaction like this?
I am not leaving in the morning as planned, but I wonder if I should wait a
day or a week?  Or just cancel.  He is begging to still go.  He has never had
back to back reactions, but hey there is always a first time.  So, if it was
YOUR child, what would you do?  Yes, I will call the allergist in the
morning, but I have always found that the parents/people with the allergy
know more about managing this allergy on a daily basis.

Help.

E.J.