ER Trip with Pickle......Again

Sept. 2009: Nursemaid Elbow (mom's fault)
Oct. 2010: Allergic Reaction to Cashews (in the ambulance)
Feb. 2012: Allergic Reaction to ?? (in the ambulance)

Those are the trips to the ER we've made with Pickle. We drove when he had Nursemaid's Elbow and he was mostly fine. Just in a small amount of pain. We were there for 3 hours and all they had to do was pop his elbow back together.

The first trip from an allergic reaction was a little more exciting than the Nursemaid's Elbow. Pickle had been tested for allergies in the broad form: eggs, peanuts, milk, soy, fish and wheat but nothing specific. He had tested positive for peanuts but he ate peanut butter, almonds and pecans with no problems, so we (the allergist and me) figured it was a mild peanut allergy. Boy were we wrong! Cashews are my favorite nut and I had just purchased a big tin of regular and a smaller one of the honey roasted. Pickle asked for some and I gave him 2 1/2. I figured he could have them because he was allergic to "peanuts" and didn't think twice. Well, he started choking, coughing, convulsing a bit and was covered in horrible hives. Red splotchy ones with little white heads. I, of course, panicked! I called a friend who calmly said, "Give him some Benadryl and call 911." Ever the obedient one, I did just that, while I was washing him off and wrapping him in a towel. My friend took Pach and the paramedics came, did their thing and off we went to the ER. He got a white tiger beanie baby in the ambulance and then promptly fell asleep. At the ER we met up with Tim and sat in a room for a couple hours while Pickle was monitered. He ended up being just fine. The doctor, a nice guy name Tim, talked to us and gave us a prescription for an Epi-Pin Jr. just in case. When we left, Pickle was running all over the room, laughing hysterically as he threw the tiger all over with dad.

I immediately made an appointment with his allergist and she did skin tests and ordered blood tests for all the tree nuts, coconut and macadamia nuts included. I never thought of coconut as a nut before! He came back hugely positive for cashews and pistachios. I was not thrilled at all. I was happy to know what he was allergic to but sad for me. Those are my two favorite nuts! :(

Pickle has not had a problem with the allergies. He's been great and we've been very diligent in what he eats. When we go places we check to see if there are cashews or pistachios in anything. At Christmas I went to a cookie exchange. One of the delicious cookies was a pistachio cookie. Mine went to someone else. I was glad I found that out! We never even had to use our first set of Epi-Pins and I was so excited! In October we got 2 new sets, yep 2. Our allergist told us to keep 2 together at all times for two reasons: 1) we are far away from the ambulance and 2) the first one doesn't work for some reason. I hated throwing out his first set because we hadn't used them! It seemed like a "waste of money" even though they were only $25. I would pay a lot more than that just to have them and the peace of mind they bring.

On to today, Thursday Feb. 16, 2012. Joy School (co-op preschool) was at our house today. It started with Pickle having a hugely bloody nose! It was all over his face, arms, hands and shirt! I was screaming at him to keep the tissue on his nose because he wouldn't hold it there! It was frusterating and I'm sure I over reacted a tad bit by screaming at him. We got that taken care of and him in a new shirt and then off we went. The lessons this week were about trying things, seeing what we are good at and what we can become good at if we try. So for our snack time I decided we would try different foods. I gave all the kids one of each of the following: dried apricot, dried craisin, everything pretzel, olive, walnut and feta cheese. After trying those they got vanilla wafers and popcorn.

At some point, Pickle started whining about his mouth hurting but when I looked everything was ok. He didn't have anything stuck in his teeth and there was no blood so I figured he was fine. He said his "belly" hurt but his pointing indicated his esophogas. I thought maybe he had some food stuck there but could still breathe. (Afriend of mine's son had this issue, which is why I thought of it). I got him some 7-Up and he seemed fine after a couple small dixie cups full. We finished our snacks and went into the livingroom to read a story and discuss a few things. After that we headed back to the kitchen to make our spiders when I noticed the hives with white heads all around his mouth. Not a good sign at all. I called my friend Martha to come help with the kids and got Pickle some Benadryl. He took that and went back to making his spider. He was all hunched over and Martha said, "Emily, look at him. He's having a hard time breathing." He was. I grabbed him, took him to the livingroom, pulled his pants down and shot him with the Epi-Pin!!!

Oh, that was horrible! I had to jam it into his thigh and hold it there for 10 seconds to make sure the medicine got in him. He was screaming and yelling and crying. I didn't blame him. I had never done that before so I didn't expect quite the loud pop of the needle coming out and piercing his skin. I plopped him in my chair and dialed 911 (which you have to do after you use an Epi-Pin). The dispatcher asked if that was him screaming bloody murder in the background. Yep, it was. He was an unhappy little boy. She sent the paramedics and I headed to get the poor boy a band-aid. Meanwhile, Martha was over at the table with the other 6 kids saying, "Ok, let's put the legs on the spider. If you do it like this, it looks like the spider is crawling off the paper at you." It was so great to have her there!

The ambulance arrived and since there were a bunch of kids at my house, the entire entry way was littered with coats, shoes and backpacks. The last time they came, the paramedics just carried a couple bags in. This time the whole gurney came in! And of course, this happened to be right at the end of Joy School so all the moms started arriving! First up was Cathy, whose daughter has a severe egg allergy! She popped her head in and made her way to the kitchen. She helped keep the kids in the kitchen when all they wanted to do was watch and look at the ambulance with it's lights flashing!

The gurney finally got taken back out to the ambulance, I grabbed a car seat for Pickle and off we went as more moms arrived! I am so greatful for the moms of the other Joy School kids. They just sent me off and took care of Pach and Bacon (who thankfully was asleep the whole time)! In fact, when we got home all the Joy School stuff had been picked up! It was so nice and a very welcome surprise!

I called Tim from home and let him know what happened. We agreed to meet at Tucson Medical Center. He beat us there. We might have gotten there first but we had to pull over so the paramedic could put an IV in Pickle. However, it didn't work, so Pickle just cried a lot more. He was such a brave little kid though! He clung to his little cow, he little beanie baby he got this trip. We got right into a room in the Pediatric ER and Pickle was glad to see dad! So was I. It always makes things like this easier with the spouse there! After the two initial nurses and whoever came, there was a knock on the door and I thought, "Wow, the doctor already. That was quick!" It wasn't the doctor, instead in walked the Relief Society President from our ward Janelle. One of the other Joy School moms had called and told her what happened. She was already on her way into town so she just stopped by. It was really nice and sweet. She also went and got me some food. It was after noon and I hadn't eaten anything! We waited and right after she came back with my food, the doctor arrived and she left. I am so greatful she came and so greatful for wonderful friends who were looking out for us.

So the doctor came in. His name was Tim. Yep, IT WAS THE SAME DOCTOR WE HAD WHEN WE WENT IN LAST TIME!!! Tim (my husband) said, "I think you were the attending doctor when we came last time." Anyway, he looked over Pickle, taking his vitals and all. He looked great except for his face. It was still a little swollen. The doctor cleared Pickle to go home and also to eat. So he left, the nurse came and gave Pickle some Tylenol. He had been complaining his leg hurt (where I shot him). So he had the Tylenol and ate all my fries. We could tell he was feeling better because when he found the onion ring in his fries, he started playing with it like a ring and after he ate part of it, it became a snake!

We finally had all our discharge papers and were out the door around 2:30 pm. I had called the ambulance around 11:15 am. We came home and Martha dropped Pach and Bacon off. And Pickle is totally fine. His face isn't swollen anymore and he is back to his old self. I am so greatful for modern medicine and that little Pickle is just fine. So next week we go back to the allergist for more testing. I'm not sure what it could have been since he'd already had all the foods we tried. Here are some pictures of the journey:

In the ambulance. The face should say it all. A little blurry
because the ambulance is not as smooth as it looks!

With his onion ring.

With his onion ring snake.

Worn out little boy on the ride home.

The used Epi-Pin. Normally the orange tip is all the
way up and not really visible.

LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW!

Global Warming? I don't think so. It's February 14th in Southern Arizona and we got SNOW!!! All the boys got dressed in their warm clothes (yes, we actually have clothes that are suitable for snowy cold weather, gloves on the other hand.....) and out we went. This was Bacon's first time in snow but the older boys are pros. I snapped a few pictures of them all together before heading out to help Pach and Pickle build a small, slightly lumpy snowman. He didn't last long :( As soon as I finished the picture, Pach picked him up and threw him down on the ground and laughed as the snowman "exploded". Bacon was put down for a nap and the older boys played for about an hour. We had to change gloves a couple times to keep hands dry, though not necessarily warm. They were so sad when the sun came out and melted all the snow.

The three happy boys. Yes, that is a UW hat Pach is wearing. Go HUSKIES!

Happy little Bacon!

Snow does not stop the construction from happening here.

He loves the snow!

It was coming down pretty hard. It was great.

The crazy one eyed snowman and two happy boys.

Vanilla and Vodka, part 1

Triple distilled, 5 times distilled, 10 times filtered, 8 times filtered, filtered with potatoes, marshmallow, cake, citrus, raspberry, 80 proof, 70 proof, big bottles, little bottles, clear bottles, colored bottles, stuff in foreign languages! It is totally crazy! I asked a lady walking by but she didn't really know. So I grabbed two bottles and went to the check-out. I told the checker I was making homemade vanilla and what did this mean and that mean, which would be better, etc. He took the bottles, conferred with another checker, came back and said handing me the Smirnoff Vodka, "This one will work just fine. We both agree the other one would be overkill." I said, "Ok, sounds good to me." And thus started my adventure in making homemade vanilla.

I should back up and start from the beginning..... 

Bountiful Baskets is a food co-op where you can buy basket loads of fruits and vegetables on Saturday's around the country. In addition to the regular basket there are extras like bread, boxes of fruit and occasionally themed boxes, such as Asian, Tropical, Italian, Mexican, etc.

A week ago I got the Tropical Fruit box as an extra. In the Tropical Fruit box were 2 vanilla beans. Oh, they smelled soooo yummy and I was excited to have them but at a quandary on how to use them. I asked one of the ladies there and she said, "Buy some Vodka and make homemade vanilla." I tried NOT to look at her like she was crazy but I am not sure I succeeded. Good thing I know her! The other option was make vanilla ice cream. Which sounded great but I would have had to add vanilla and we don't have an ice cream maker.

I always thought you had to buy vanilla at the store so I was a little curious about homemade vanilla so I searched online. My friend was right, all the recipes said you could use Vodka, Rum or Brandy but most recommended Vodka since it's clear and has no flavor. Not sure I wanted to use alcohol, I clicked on a link "homemade vanilla without alcohol" and was sorely disappointed when it too directed me to purchase alcohol.

Suddenly Tim burst into the office and said, "It has 35% alcohol in it. Vanilla has alcohol in it." On the back under ingredients it said, "35% alcohol." What?!?! I had no idea. I looked up vanilla online and all have alcohol in them. I started to think maybe I might try to make homemade vanilla.

Since I knew almost nothing about alcohol I asked a few people I know drink for their input. Aside from a brand or two each liked, I didn't learn much except in WA State you have to go to a state liquor store to purchase Vodka. You don't have to here in AZ. I did learn what proof meant but know nothing about what anything else means. I'm ok with that.

So I got home, opened the Vodka and smelled it. It smelled like really strong rubbing alcohol to me. Yuck! I sliced open the vanilla beans and scraped the innards out with a knife. I put them in the bottle and when they were mostly cleaned out, in went the whole bean. I put the lid on and gave the bottle a good shake. I watched it until all the particles had settled on the bottom and opened the bottle to smell it. It smelled like really strong rubbing alcohol still. I had to remind myself it takes awhile for the vanilla flavor and smell to infuse with the alcohol. So 10 minutes later I smelled it again and it smelled faintly like vanilla. By the end of the day, it smelled pretty nice and was starting to turn a brown/yellow color. According to most of the recipes, I have to let it sit for at least 2 months, shaking it everyday before I start to use it. The recipes also said the longer it sits the better it gets. And to use a good Vodka because it can last for 10 years!!! WOW!!!

I must admit though, I felt a little dirty buying it. Even after I found out store bought vanilla is made with alcohol (which is probably why I think it tastes terrible) and I was making vanilla, I still felt a little dirty and nervous. All of you who know me and know I don't drink are probably laughing hysterically at me right now. I never had any desire to even taste it and still don't but still....... I made sure the guy at the store knew I was making homemade vanilla with it and that I don't drink, which is why I needed all the help! I think I said that a couple times because I was so nervous! Anyway, below are some pictures of the start of my adventure. I will be updating pictures as the time progresses.

Beginning: Vodka and vanilla beans.

Vanilla beans alone.

Insides of vanilla bean scraped out.

End of preparation. Everything together and the waiting begins.