Jonathan in Hospital

I had received a call from Jonathan today around 1:15 PM saying that he was not feeling well and wanted me to pick him up.  He was attending a safety training course on the outskirts of Houston.  He said that he was feeling shortness of breath, the feeling of passing out, and really jittery. I drove down to pick him up and proceeded to drive him to his allergist where he had made an appointment for later in the afternoon just as a precaution.

As we were driving down I-45 he told me to pull over and that something was not right.  I pulled off and immediately said that his throat and tongue were swelling up, the severe sign of an allergic reaction.  Luckilly before I left the house I had grabbed his EpiPen pack just in case.  I quickly called the allergist and spoke to the Nurse On Call; she told me to administer the EpiPen in his thigh then call 911.

I told Jonathan "are you ready"....he said "yeah".....then I stabbed him with his EpiPen.

I called 911 and they sent out an ambulance to our location.  A sheriff officer pulled up behind us as he saw we were pulled off on the highway to keep traffic away from us.  The ambulance came and picked up Jonathan and took him to Northwest Houston Medical Center.  In the ambulance they gave him some benadryl and a high dose of steroids to counteract the allergic reaction.  I followed him behind in my car to the hospital.

 

They got him checked in and in a room, but he was still feeling jittery and his throat was still swollen a bit.  The doctor came in and checked him out.  They gave him some Valium to calm his jitters and to relax him.  After they gave him that he started dozing off to sleep and stopped shaking.

After the Valium had a chance to work and the steroid/benadryl had a chance to tackle the reaction, he started feeling better pretty fast.  He regained the color in his face, his blood pressure and pulse came down, he was breathing better, and his throat was beginning to stop swelling.  They discharged him after about 2 hours in the ER.  We paid our copay then drove home.

He is resting now and feeling better.  I went and filled a prescription they gave us from the ER for Predinose (steroid) and picked up some more benadryl as the doctor said to keep giving him some until his symptoms are completely gone.  I made him an appointment to see his allergist tomorrow afternoon since he has never had an allergic reaction attack at all.  They said that they might need to up his medications since he reacted to something pretty severe (which we still can't figure out!).  He is not allergic to any food, just trees, pollen, grass, mold, and everything nature wise.  I think that it was the smog/smoke or some air pollen or element that caused the reaction.  Hopefully we will know more tomorrow.

More info and updates tomorrow once we visit the allergist.  I know that God had to be at work today because He made me think to grab Jonathan's EpiPen, and just be at the right place at the right time.  Keep Jonathan in your prayers and I will let you know more tomorrow!

Click here for more info on allergic reactions - WebMD - Allergic Reactions
Click here for more info on EpiPens - Wikipedia - EpiPen