no more ponies

On Tuesday, Bosten had "rodeo day" at preschool.  It was pretty fun and exciting because they got to do some cowboy activities, eat a BBQ'ed hot dog, and ride a pony.  After school, he mentioned that he was starting to feel itchy.  Since he is super sensitive (I carry Benadryl with me all the time), I wasn't at all surprised and gave him some medicine.  He didn't really feel better all afternoon, but didn't seem to be getting worse either.  I figured he would sleep it off, and feel better in the morning.

At midnight, he woke me up in a panic/screaming that he couldn't breathe and that his throat was being weird (his way of telling me that it was swelling).  He was burning up hot too.  It was scary for both of us as I tried to get his breathing regulated and his temperature down with his rescue inhaler and medicines.  I was ready to send him and Kyle to the ER when he finally said that his throat was feeling better and he could breathe easier.  Poor kid!  He told me later he thought he was going to die.  ("Duh Mom, if you can't breathe then you're dead.")  I assured him that if I couldn't help him, then the doctor at the hospital could have.  

I have an Epi pen (and in hindsight I wish I would have used it), but it was downstairs in the medicine cabinet and I didn't want to leave him to go find it.  We haven't been super great about keeping it with us, because we've never had an allergic reaction that involved anything other than annoying hives.  I now know better, and will have it with me everywhere I go.  

It was scary at the time, but more scary later as I realized how serious it was and/or could have been.  He was flat out on the couch  (or rocking in the rocking chair with me) for 2 days afterwards.  The second day, he took a 2 hour nap in the afternoon and once he woke up, he was back to his normal self.

He's been on a horse a few times, with no reaction at all....which made this whole thing weird.  But, we are done with horses.  This cowboy will have to do rodeo days without a horse.