Allergy Attack!

Yesterday, we took Ethan to the urgent care (Kaiser's emergency room) because he was having an allergic reaction to something. In fact, we believe that "something" was the long scratch he'd gotten from one of the rose bushes in the back yard. About 10-15 minutes after the scratch, he came over to show me his arm, which was now sporting a huge lump about 1/2 an inch to an inch high along the entire scratch. And that's also when I noticed he was rubbing his eyes, which were swelling up, turning red, and starting to water. We gave him Benadryl at first because of its antihistamine qualities, but another 10-15 minutes later I looked over and saw the corners of his eyes, which were starting to bulge out. I don't mean his eyelids-- I mean, the actual whites of his eyes were bulging as if there was liquid or air building up behind them. Just like this:



Needless to say, not what you want to see when you're looking at your two-year-old. We freaked out and drove like maniacs to the hospital, where eventually the doctor examined him and found that the swelling was starting to go down enough to send us home. He prescribed Zyrtec and then told us to follow up with our regular doctor for an allergy test as soon as possible. I'm sort of surprised that he didn't give Ethan any eye drops while we were there, but I didn't even know about that until I got home and did some more research. He also told us to keep up with the Benadryl every 6 hours until the swelling was gone for 12 hours altogether, so we're still dosing him up because it's still lingering on. Poor thing! Must be so uncomfortable... and here I was hoping he wouldn't be cursed with the Valley allergies that everyone seems to get. Ugh!