A Night I Don't Want to Relive Any Time Soon

On Friday night/Saturday morning, we had a very scary experience that I do not wish to relive again. You see, Daniel had been working late at the Y to get everything set for coaches' meetings the next morning (Sat.). Then, he needed to go put up the church signs in front of the daycare where we meet. It was about 9:30pm when he got out there. There were no lights to keep the ground well-lit, so he was doing it basically in the dark (driving stakes into the ground and wrapping the bungee cords around the stakes). After putting up the first of two signs, he realized that there were TONS of little ants crawling on his legs. He swatted them off his legs as quickly as possible and began to put up the other sign (Keep in mind that I am at home with two sleeping children). His ankles and legs were itching which led to his scalp to itch. Once he got in the car to drive home, his lips and face began to swell. By the time he got home, he was frantic and very, very swollen, not to mention COVERED in whelps/hives almost from head to toe.

I talked to a very frantic and upset, Daniel, on the 20 min. ride home several times. I had the doctor on call paged, and got David to run by Mom and Dad's house to get some Benadryl. About 10 minutes after Daniel got home, David arrived with the medicine. Daniel took two, and we waited for the doctor to call. During that time, I called one of our pastors and asked them to come stay with the boys, because I knew that we needed to go to the ER. The doctor finally called, and told us we needed to go to the ER. About 10 minutes later, Pastor B, his wife, and son arrived to watch over the sleeping children.

Of course the ER is never fast (imagine if he couldn't breathe), and we sat for awhile. Daniel's symptoms were getting worse (shortness of breathe, itchy throat), but his swelling was going down a little. When we finally got back to a "room," they gave him an IV. This made him very sick to his stomach. His face that had been very red and swollen, then looked ghostly white. They gave him some steroids through the IV and waited for his condition to "stabilize." We arrived at the ER around 10:30pm and left around 1am. That's not too bad for ER time, but it was getting really late.

I got to sleep around 2am. The boys woke me up at 6am. Daniel was able to sleep until almost 10am when I woke him up. Benadryl makes him very sleepy and almost incoherent. He's still taking a prescribed steroid and over the counter Benadryl to help the inflamation and itching. He's doing better, but he's still not a hundred percent.

I wish I could truly convey how scared I was. When Daniel was freaking out, I had to try to remain calm. It was difficult, but I like to think that I did well. Now I've got to make sure that Daniel gets to the doctor soon, so we can get our hands on an epi-pen just in case this happens again.

Thank you, Lord, for protecting Daniel and keeping him from being admitted to the hospital. Thank you, Pastor B and family, for coming to our aid. I couldn't have imagined trying to keep up with two small children during sleeping time and give my husband the attention that he needed. Thank you, David, for being available to help and bringing over the medicine. That night could have been a whole lot worse, but the Lord kept him safe and has surrounded us with people who care.