Life takes some funny turns. I originally started this blog thinking that it would be full of insightful things that I learned by being a stay at home worker. Now that my wife and I have switched roles, and I am a stay at home parent instead, I've been unsure of what to write about.
I still contract with my old day job employer and work one day a week plus special projects. So wouldn't it just figure that on the one day last week that I was working outside the home, my son got his first ride in an ambulance...
I was just leaving work when I got a frantic call from my mother in law who asked if I could get my wife on the phone and get her to stop. You see she was racing into town with our 14 month old son who was apparently in shock from his first encounter with peanut butter. My mother in law wanted to catch up with her so that she could ride in the back seat and keep an eye on our son. I tried to get in touch with my wife, but there was no getting through. To top it off, she just changed cell phones and her voice mail is not setup yet, so I couldn't even leave a message. I couldn't text her, because I was driving toward her as quickly as possible.
A couple of minutes later (which felt like forever) I got a call from my wife saying that she'd met up with the ambulance and that my son was doing fine. They were going to leave her car and ride in the ambulance the rest of the way to the hospital. I would meet them there.
Skip ahead to the hospital and I went to the ED admitting desk to find out if they were there yet. At first they told me they didn't even have a record of them as incoming, but then found them and said they weren't here yet. So I waited.
My father in law shows up, taking time away from work. And we waited.
I see an ambulance go by the doors. And we waited.
Finally they call my son's name. I go up to the desk, go through the admitting process and they take me back to the room where my wife and son are talking with the doctor. My son's eyelids are swollen and pink, and he's covered in tiny little hives. They ended up giving him some Benadryl and some oral steroids to reduce the swelling. At this point, they're not sure if it really was a reaction to the peanuts or not, so they recommend that we see an allergist as soon as possible.
My son is now fine. We've seen his regular doctor and got the referral we need for our insurance to cover a visit with the allergist. For now we're avoiding peanuts and waiting for tomorrow to schedule an appointment to see the allergist.
When I thought of all of the firsts that I might miss by working outside of the home, this one hadn't even occurred to me. But I hate that my wife had to go through this one without me. She did an awesome job, and kept a cool head until she knew he was safe, but I still would have rather been there with them.
I imagined losing my son that day. I never want to have that feeling again.
