Earlier this Summer, Molly was bitten by an ant and her ankle
swelled. Then on Friday, Molly got another aunt bite and her hand
swelled pretty badly. I actually had calling her pediatrician on my
to-do list for Monday.....just to see the best way to treat it if it
happened again.
Then, yesterday afternoon, we were at Cane Creek
Park and Molly said, "Mommy, another ant bit me!" So I was watching the
area and within about five minutes it started to swell. I noticed some
hives breaking out on her face so we quickly packed up and headed out
to get her some Benadryl. Her hives started spreading so we decided to
take her to Urgent Care. She went from bad to worse and by the time we
got to Urgent Care she was swelling everywhere. Brian dropped me off
with Molly and took the other children home to Nana. Within five
minutes of arriving at Urgent Care, she was having breathing
difficulties and her oxygen was low, so they called an ambulance to take
her to the hospital. Brian met us at the hospital. After receiving
oxygen, Prednisone, and Benadryl, she started looking MUCH better and
was soon watching Dora and drinking juice. That was one of the scariest
experiences that I've ever been through. I'm typically pretty
level-headed and calm during these types of situations, but I could tell
that the Urgent Care doctor and nurses were getting nervous and that
made me nervous. Very scary.
So we're going to have to really
watch Molly around insects. The doctor said that if they have an
allergy to ants, they could also have allergies to other types of
insects. He also said that each time she is bitten, her reactions could
get worse. We are following up with her pedestrian and an allergist
and we now have an Epi-pen that will travel around with Molly just in
case she should have a severe allergic reaction like this again.
Going through this type of experience makes you hug your children a little tighter. I am so thankful for our precious Molly.