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.
