Asher's Allergies

First of all, Asher is ok. He went to King's Kids this morning, and we got a call late in the morning that his eyes were swelling and he was getting a rash - but he wasn't having any trouble breathing (and he never did this time - thank God!). While they were on the phone with me, somebody else at the church had already called 911, which I am thankful for, because, as we know, these things can escalate really quickly! The same teacher called me back a couple of minutes later and said that they were taking him to the ER in an ambulance. The fire station is right across the street from the church, so it all happened really fast!

His and another little boy's highchairs were sitting right next to each other at lunch time, and that other little boy put his cup (that matched Asher's exactly) with milk in it on Asher's tray. I think his teachers noticed it pretty quickly and were not sure if he had taken a drink or not but were keeping an eye on him. After lunch, they put the kids down for their naps, and Asher started crying. They went to him and his eyes were starting to swell and he was getting a rash on his face. And this had ALL happened within about a ten minute period. They immediately called 911 and me. And even though they had always been careful with Asher - knowing about his allergies - they will be even MORE careful now. Everyone has been talked to. We're not happy that it happened, but I, of course, have been guilty of letting things slip by me too, so I can't point much of a finger. And we (and they) will make SURE that Asher is NOT able to get to somebody else's milk or anything else dangerous to him in the future!

Anyway, I got to the ER as quickly as I could (and Beau followed as soon as he could), and although Asher was pretty calm by this point, what I saw was heartbreaking!!! His eyes were even MORE swollen than they have ever been. It was horrible! They gave him lots of different medicine - all the usual - antihistamine, steroids, epinephrine...His rash is pretty much gone, and his eyes have started to go down a LITTLE, but it's still VERY SAD to look at him!!! And he is ok. We were able to bring him home around 2:00, I think. He's been sleeping pretty much straight for the last few hours, so we'll see what he's like when he wakes up. He may be "out of it" for a while. I look forward to having our "bouncing baby boy" back! It makes me sad for him to be this way. But it could have been so much worse, and I know that he'll be just fine.

So you can pray for all of that! =) We're praying for Asher to recover quickly and for him to be miraculously healed completely of these allergies. My first instinct today is to never let Asher go to mother's day out or school or anything like that again. But I KNOW that wisdom and being careful are good and necessary, but sheltering him out of fear is not good - even though that's what I feel like doing today. Just wanted to bring everybody up to date on what happened today.