I’ll just start this post by saying we are all okay, we are all fine, no need to panic.

(I love it when the school calls and they open with that. “It’s the school calling, no need to worry, everything is fine!” Whew.)

So yesterday evening we had a little visit at our place by an ambulance and some lovely EMTs.

Side story: I remember not too long ago, I was talking to a friend of mine and she – mother of three – said she didn’t even know where the children’s hospital is in Ottawa, because she’d never been there. And then I laughed and laughed because I think we have had every form of emergency care at every single hospital in town. GAH.

Anyway, the ambulance was called because one of our children was having a severe allergic reaction.

Was it Captain Jelly Belly, who is allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, soy, and other legumes? Nope.

Gal Smiley, then, who is terribly allergic to all tree nuts, all seeds, seed oils, coconut, and other sundries? Guess again.

It was our youngest, previously known as our carefree allergy-free child, Little Miss Sunshine. Sigh.

And it wasn’t even food related! She is so terribly, terribly allergic to cats, and now it seems, guinea pigs too. Yesterday she was at a friend’s house for literally 45 minutes and spent five of those minutes petting her guinea pigs and BAM.

By the time she got home her face had started to swell. Within a half hour she couldn’t open her eyes due to swelling. Her nose ran until it bled and her face was covered with hives.

I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty freaked out. We gave her an adult dose of Benedryl as soon as she got home, but things kept escalating, so I called Telehealth Ontario to see if it was okay for us to give her another dose. Telehealth heard the words “allergic reaction” and didn’t mess around, they called 911 for us and sent an ambulance right away.

But everything is okay. By the time the ambulance got there, she had plateaued – not any better, but not getting worse. They checked her breathing and blood pressure and they were okay, which means it wasn’t anaphylactic. We’d already given her the maximum dose of Benedryl for her size, so they couldn’t give her any more of that. So they just sat there chatting for a bit and then we signed some forms and they left.

I mean, her head was the size of a basketball and her face looked like molten lava, but sure, she was okay. She managed to get some sleep and we gave her more meds in the night.

This morning, the Little Miss is better but still so, so swollen. Her face looks like she’s a pro boxer who lost a particularly bad bout last night.

I’ve never seen a kid have such a severe reaction to an environmental allergy before, but this is how she reacts to cats too, so I guess it’s happening. One more epipen in the house, one more kid who has to carry around meds, one more kid who is The Allergy Kid.

To tell you the truth, I think she’s a little bit happy to be included. But I’ll feel much better if she outgrows it. Poor little miss.

Just realized I wrote this whole post without even mentioning that Sir Monkeypants twisted his knee and ankle at ultimate frisbee yesterday and can’t walk – he was already laid up on the couch barely able to stand during the whole ambulance situation. We’re a swelling, swollen, ice-pack wielding household today, yes we are. Is it naptime yet?