Hospital Trip - Part 2

All was going well last Thursday after being discharged from Children's Hospital. As soon as we arrived home, Kristjan went over to the neighbors where Clifford was staying to show off his incision. He played the rest of the afternoon (no running/rough housing/jumping, of course). Kristjan's next dose of meds was after 5pm. Pete gave him oxycodone, tylenol, and ibuprofen. Shortly after that, we sat down for dinner. While eating, Kristjan started rubbing his eyes and complaining they were itchy. Since this is normal behavior for Kristjan and dealing with allergies, we gave him some claritin. But after dinner was over, Kristjan was still rubbing his eyes and complaining. After closer inspection, we noticed the whites of his eyes were very irritated. This signals to us that something is wrong and it's not just normal 'allergies'. Pete called the on-call surgeon at Children's. While waiting for the doctor to call back, Kristjan's symptoms get worse: a few hives on his face and around his eyes, his eyes and skin getting rashy. I decide we need to go to the hospital. I have him in the car when the doctor finally calls Pete's cell. Pete explains the situation, and Kristjan's symptoms are getting worse. Finally, we're instructed to hit Kristjan with the epi pen and go to the hospital. We've NEVER had to do this before (luckily). It was heartbreaking, but necessary. I held Kristjan in my arms and forced his head to look away while Pete gave him the shot. Then we drove to the hospital. I thought we were going to get in a wreck the way Pete was driving. We arrive back at the hospital, explain the situation, and are immediately taken to a room. Poor Kristjan. He'd had enough of being in the hospital and being pricked 'n prodded. He told me he didn't want to stay in the hospital again. That broke my heart! We stayed at the er for a few hours as the nurses/doctor watched over Kristjan. They had no idea what could have caused this. Pete and I think it was one of the meds, since it was the only thing 'new' to his system (all other food/drinks were safe, and he'd had before). We were eventually discharged and back home after midnight. Tomorrow we take Kristjan in for testing with his allergist. Pete had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Hoing today, and told her about this. Her bet is on the oxycodone. Even though Kristjan had it in the hospital with no reaction, that was the only 'new' medicine he'd ever had, and it takes a few exposures to a particular thing before a severe reaction will occur if you're allergic to it. So we'll see. We're hoping it is the medicine, because if it's not, we have no idea what it could've been to cause the reaction. Again, we took pics to chronicle yet another adventure to the hospital. I love the first pic. It's a picture of Clifford wearing 2 different shoes. We were in such a rush to get out the door to go to the hospital, Clifford didn't even pay attention to what shoes he put on!! It provided us (and even the doctor) a bit of comic relief during this ordeal.