Another first for the books!

I received a called from Aili's teacher on Friday, around 1:15pm.  She was concerned because Aili had been rubbing her eyes constantly.  I know that she is prone to rubbing them until they swell so since the day was already more than half over, I told Mme. Barcic that I would be right by to pick her up.

By the time I had shown up, which was only about 20 minutes later, I found Aili in the school office, coughing non-stop.  I knew at this time that she was having an asthma attack, triggered by some sort of allergen that she may have come in contact with.  I raced home, got her pyjamas on and popped her right into our bed and gave her a Ventolin treatment.  Thank goodness that the ER doctor had recommended that we get a nebulizer machine to keep at home to prevent further avoidable ER visits!  Her coughing stopped and her breathing returned to near-normal after just one treatment.  I decided to let her watch TV in my bedroom to rest, while I sat and read next to her, to keep an eye on her breathing.

After a few moments, I noticed that her hands had red, almost bruiselike marks on them.  Thinking that they were from rubbing her eyes, I didn't think anything of it.  Then I noticed a welt under her eye.  Again, perhaps resulting from the rubbing?

After a few more minutes, she started fidgeting.  Her pyjama shirt has risen up and I noticed a few red marks on her belly.  Thinking that her shirt was rubbing, I took it off.  

By now, I knew that something was up.  I called the Tele-Health line to see what they suggested.  As soon as I started to describe Aili's symptoms, the nurse said, "Sounds like she has hives."  Of course!  That made perfect sense, considering the asthma attack, itchy eyes, coughing...  By the time I got off of the phone, which was only about five minutes later, her hives had progressed to such a point that the marks were starting to blend into several big hives:

My poor peanut.  The Benedryl seemed to kick in after about 20 minutes and by the time Connor got home at 3:30pm, they were nearly gone!  The nurse had recommended that we keep giving her the Benedryl until the hives had been gone for at least 12 hours.  I was optimistic that we had licked this thing!

Wishful thinking.

By 8pm, when she was due for her next dose of it, the hives had come back and she needed another Ventolin treatment.  And she woke at 3:30am, wheezing and coughing.

It's now 12:30pm on Saturday.  We needed another treatment and more Benedryl this morning and I suspect that I will need more of it before the weekend is over.   Luckily, they haven't been overly itchy or uncomfortable for her, just the asthma-related symptoms.

Hopefully we'll get through the worst of it by Monday and she'll be none the worse for wear!  Have a great weekend!