Never knew what an epinephrine autoinjector was until I bought one for my son. His doctor recommended that it’s crucial to have it for self-injecting purposes for a person with severe allergic reactions.
The autoinjector contains epinephrine, a chemical that narrows blood vessels and opens airways in the lungs. These effects can reverse severe low blood pressure, wheezing, severe skin itching, hives, and other symptoms of an allergic reaction.
I’ve always seen adrenaline autoinjector in medical movies or series like House MD or Grey’s Anatomy; and always thought of it as a cool scene where the fate of an almost dying person is dramatically changed. Never thought that I would own such a thing, that too for my son.
When the doctor first told me about it, I got really freaked out and asked whether he thinks my son’s allergies are so severe that he might be susceptible to anaphylaxis. He assured me that’s not the case (hopefully), but still it’s better to be on the safe side.
Even after the doctor’s recommendation we didn’t get the autoinjector immediately until one night we got scared out of our wits and ordered it the next morning…
We had a friends get together and there were nuts as an appetizer. Loads of nuts…
We knew that our baby (1.5 years at that time) is allergic to nuts but he didn’t have the habit of picking up things randomly and putting in his mouth, was always a fussy eater. So I didn’t give it much heed. But after a while he started developing red bumps all over his neck, and his neck started to swell up, he was literally going crazy… wailing in agony. Was scratching his neck, back, face, everything at the same time. I panicked and had no idea what happened to him. We immediately rushed home and the moment we entered I gave him a heavy dose of antihistamine. After 20 minutes or so he settled down.
That was the most frightening experience my husband and I had.. and I felt so guilty for not being cautious and not keeping his antihistamine with me. But on the brighter side now I always keep his required medication with me, no matter where I go, even if it’s for 2 minutes only. Moreover, we also got the epinephrine autoinjector; God forbid if something worse happens, we should at least be prepared.
That was the first and last time our son had nuts. We don’t know for sure which nut it exactly was that triggered his reaction but have no intention of experimenting, so we keep him away from every nut on this planet Earth.