Last Friday was sports day at Chai's school. Although he's not going to school I still want to keep him engaged so the boys and I went along for a while. We spent about two hours there in the morning. When we got home Chai's eye was sore, red and itchy so I gave him some antihistamine thinking it was hayfever.
We went back in the afternoon, spent about half an hour there then went to the park for a play. When we got into the car Eljay said that he had a sore eye. I told him not to rub it and that I'd give him some medicine when we got home.
By the time we got home (a two minute drive) both of Eljay's eyes were really puffy and very red. They were so bad that he couldn't see properly. I gave him some antihistamine and watched whilst he lay on the floor throwing a tantrum because I wouldn't give him chocolate. Whist he was screaming at the top of his lungs Tiger video called us and wanted me to talk. Clearly I was too busy to talk so gave the phone to Chai.
After fifteen minutes Eljay wasn't looking any better so I loaded both the boys into the car and headed for the Dr's surgery. Eljay was still screaming. Tiger was still on the phone wanting me to talk to him. I told him that I couldn't talk but the entire trip to the Dr's surgery he kept on ringing. After the third call I stopped answering. Really, isn't it obvious that when I'm in the middle of a crisis I don't have have the time to stop and talk?
As is usual in these situations, Chai started to panic and cry because he was worried about Eljay. I managed to calm him down and rushed us in to the Dr's surgery. Eljay's eyes were even worse and the white parts where obscured by a yellow layer. We walked in, the receptionist took one look at Eljay and arranged for him to see the next available Dr. As we were walking to the nurses section our regular Dr came out, looked at Eljay and said he'd call someone to see him immediately.
We went to the nurses station and straight away had two nurses looking after Eljay. Within a few minutes a Dr was there and after a few minutes more the Dr who owns the practice was there. They gave Eljay some steroids then contacted the hospital and told them we'd be coming in.
Because the reaction happened so quickly and I didn't know what had caused it, he needed to go to hospital to be monitored for four hours. They warned me that the hospital was busy so we'd be waiting for a while.
I didn't have to go straight to hospital so I dropped Chai off with my sister, went home to for food, phone charger etc and headed to the hospital. The private hospital here doesn't have a pediatric ward so we had to go to the public hospital.When you get to the emergency department there you don't get to talk to anyone, you just walk in and sit around waiting to see the triage nurse. Too bad if it's an emergency. The staff behind the desk won't even look at you. Despite them knowing we were coming, we had to sit there waiting for the triage nurse. That took an hour.
Whilst I was sitting there my sister called to say that Chai's eyes had started to swell. FFS.
By the time we saw the triage nurse Eljay was back to his normal self. He was jumping all over the furniture, eyeing off the other patients and having a great time. His eyes were still puffy but a lot better than they had been. It was obvious to the triage nurse that he was fine but only a Dr could officially sign off so we had to wait.
Thankfully the triage nurse got a Dr so after waiting another half an hour a Dr came and got us, had a look at Eljay and sent us home. What a relief.
Meanwhile Chai's eyes had settled down after a dose of antihistamine. For the life of me I couldn't think what had cause the allergic reaction. We hadn't eaten anything different, been in contact with anything different or used a different sunscreen.
Turns out that there were over thirty other people who had the same reaction after being at the sports so it must have been something that was sprayed on the lawn there. What a relief.