Thursday, May 3, 2012

Zach's new allergy

Zachary, unfortunately, had an eventful trip to Oregon.  We got in Friday night, and Zach, Elizabeth and I shared a room.  I woke up in the middle of the night noticing Zach's breathing was irregular.  It didn't sound good at all, so I woke him up and took him to the bathroom, hoping that would help.  He went back to sleep, but I could hear his labored breathing all night.
Saturday morning he had short coughs while we were getting ready to head out.  He couldn't stop, but just short like he was clearing his breath.  Saturday we went to go see Jennifer and Spencer's place and a little shopping (to a great store called Craft Warehouse.  Wish we had one!) and Zach's breathing was fine, so I didn't think about it much.
We came back early afternoon to my grandparents.  Zach went back to the part of the house where the cat lives, he hadn't been over there before then.  About 5 minutes later, they got out some boxes that had been in storage that had toys in them.  Within minutes of that, his breathing got really bad.
He was laboring breathing and mostly just intaking air quickly and loudly, not letting any out.  He went down to the ground and started crying, so I ran him outside to get him away from whatever was causing it.  I got the benedryl out of the car while we sat on the driveway, where Zach was quickly getting hysterical from not being able to breathe.  He had no rashes or red marks like he does with his milk allergy, but his throat was closing so quickly.  He couldn't even cry, but was trying which didn't help.  I gave him one more dose of benedryl hoping it would help.  We tried calming him down, and finally he got to the point that air was going in and out.  About 10 minutes later he could breathe alright, but still loudly and with a lot of effort.  All the adults had planned on going to the temple, but Jennifer stayed with us in case anything else happened.  We got out a blanket and sat on the grass in their front yard and played games and whatever else was in the car the rest of the afternoon.
My Dad booked us a hotel less than 5 minutes away, so after dinner we headed out there.  The three of us hung out for a while, then Dad and Mike came by to give Zach a blessing.  He had another episode that evening, and had been given more benedryl, and was already asleep and breathing loudly and still with a lot of effort.  We went to sleep and at about 1:30am he woke up not being able to breathe again, so he got another dose and I tried to calm him down.  He went to sleep, but I sure didn't get much since I was trying to monitor his breathing.  The next day was Easter, so we went to church, the temple, and then back for an egg hunt and dinner so Zach was able to stay outside all day.  He and I had a little date for our Easter dinner out on the patio.  We washed everything the three of us had worn the last couple of days and went back to our hotel and went for a little walk with a great view of the temple.
Monday we went around Portland, so he started breathing the best he had since during the day on Saturday.  It was such a relief!  My dad had to go back to California Monday afternoon, so we booked a ticket for Zach to go with him.  It was sad since Zach was so excited to be in Oregon, but then he was happy to go on an airplane and spend a few days with Grandma and Grandpa Bishop.  He got treats at the airport and got spoiled for 3 days, so he was alright :)  It was sad to say goodbye to our buddy, and we were so excited to see him again Thursday night!

So now we are going to get Zach tested to find out exactly what it was that caused his reaction.  It was the next level up from his milk allergy, and since it is something airborne we will have to carry our epiPen with us more.  Poor little guy!

1 comment:

Tara said...

you poor thing. you are such a strong mama. i cant imagine. ill keep him in my prayers