Banished I say, Banished

Banished, DOWN WITH SUDAFED. You may remember this post when I gave sweet little Hailey the drug that she actually wasn’t allowed to take. After an hour on the phone with the makers of Sudafed the drug from hell, I found that in fact Hailey was TOO young, the retailers had not pulled the drug from the shelves and I should not give it to her anymore (oh and they sent me 2 coupons for $1.00 off Sudafed, because the 3 bottles I had and the fact that only one of my children could take it for the next 3 years, they figured I should really buy more.

Fast forward a couple months to today, well the last 10 days really. The plague has been going through the fourth grade, strep, pink eye, fevers, ear infections, flu…one day they were down to 4 kids in class. The teacher, bless her heart, has been on a disinfecting mission – hands, desks all that can be seen.

I picked Lauren up from school today and we headed for the mountains (Grandpa road with us too, but that is a whole nother Oprah.) The entire way up we were in sniffle hell…Hailey had a fever 100.1, sniffles and coughs, Lauren was so sniffly she was driving us nuts and I was asking her to BLOW for god’s sake BLOW.

We arrived and shortly their after I broke out the drug from hell, Sudafed nasal decongestant to give Lauren a head start on a better night’s sleep. The whole time thinking to myself here we go again…we are in the mountains, again, and I have 2 sick kids, again, and I Think I will have to make that big fat snowman all by myself darn it. Oh and we are here to see Annie tomorrow night for crying out loud.

Off to bed Lauren went at 8:30 – at 9:15 she comes out of her room in hysterics, “I am itching all over and I can’t stop – something is happening to me – I am panicking.”

Lauren can be quite the drama queen so I calmly tell her let’s get you some lotion I bet your skin is just dry.

She says “NO something is happening to me."

She is breathing fast, panicking and sure enough covered from SHOULDER to TOE with hives, and I mean covered. (one step ahead of me again?)

We calm her down, lotion her up, dress her in one of daddies t-shirts, get her some water, take her pulse, check drug from hell, Sudafed bottle, discuss laundry detergents (we are NO strangers to hives and all detergents are FREE of everything).

We want to give her Benadryl for the hives but are nervous of drug interactions so off to Google I go. Only to soon find out that a severe allergic reaction to drug from hell, Sudafed is Hives, increased heart rate, rash, swelling of lips or mouth. CALL DR IMMEDIATELY it says. SO I DO.

And yes, Lauren is having a severe allergic reaction to Sudafed the drug from hell.

SO now I get to stay awake for 6 hours and watch her for signs of anaphylactic shock, I get to give her Benadryl round the clock till the hives are gone for 12 hours, I get to dump all the drug from hell Sudafed I own down the disposal, I get to shred the coupons they sent me after they interrogated me about their mistake, I get to call our regular Dr tomorrow and say “what the eff can I give my poor kids when they are so congested they can hardly breathe”, I get to read messages from my husband that say "way to go mom", and I get to write this scathing email about the drug from hell Sudafed.

Nough Said.