February 4, 2009

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.

15 comments:

Tassi said...

I am so sorry to hear all that. These are the days motherhood is tough. When this is all past, go do something for you!

But I have to say that I totally relate to the burnt cookies and love your snowman picture. I'll be back to visit more often! You have a great blog!

Unknown said...

Oh. My. Gosh. Banished is right. NOTHING worse than sick kids. Well, except for when mama is sick, too. Hang in there!

Krape Family said...

I am so sorry this happened to you. How scary.
The kids always seem to get sick when we have something big planned too...everytime.

Alicia said...

oooo, nasty stuff! Poor Lauren. Those hives are scary and no fun!

Allison said...

How awful!!! These days, I only feel comfortable giving Tylenol and Motrin, but it sucks when they are stuffy and "decongestants" are "outlawed"...what do we do?!!!! I hope they feel better soon and enjoy ANNIE!

jen@odbt said...

That is so scary. I personally don't like taking sudafed - makes me all woozy.

For the kids, I'd recommend nasal spray (basically saline). That's what our pediatrician recommends during the winter months. Two sprays in each nostril or a neti pot but those are hard for kids to use. The saline helps to loosen the mucous and the drainage is not as thick.

thecasualperfectionist.com said...

Oh no!! How scary! I've also heard about the saline nasal rinse for kids. Have you tried a humidifier in her room?

Good luck!!

Momma, The Casual Perfectionist
http://thecasualperfectionist.com

Lindsay said...

ooo no thats terrible.. how is she doing now? I have a lot of medical allergies and man the hives are the worst.. if she still has any get one of those oatmeal baths they help a lot. Also they make caladryl(sp) in a clear form now that helps.

Paige said...

OH NOOOO! I'm so sorry to read all of this. I have to say, I'm surprised you didn't pour the drug out before, that's not like you, its much more like a story from me. Hope things are better today.

Bonnie said...

and then I go and ask if the girls are sick.. sorry, I emailed you before I read your blog. Hope things are better tonight.

the mama bird diaries said...

OH I'm so sorry. Sending healing vibes your way.

Laura said...

Oh dear.....what a pain for everyone.
I hope someone from Sudafed comes across this.
She's better now?

whoopsadasie said...

I am soo sorry to hear poor Lauren got the hives from the "drug from h**l"! Hope she is doing better now.

Jenni said...

Ohhhh nooooo! I hope she is okay now!

Courtney said...

oh my, I hope all is fine now. but what a scary situation. you should write a letter or just contact them and attached the link to this blog. The companies that produces these over the counter drugs are too free with their labels and lack of warnings. It really annoys me. ever since the little man arrived, I have been painfully away of the scary situations bought about by over the counter meds.