I had to laugh when a young mom said, "It must be nice that your kids are adults, because they don't need you anymore."

Oh, that sweet, innocent young thing. I told her that once you're a parent, you're a parent for the rest of you life. You don't stop being a parent when your kids turn 18.  

Late night phone call  

Case in point: I received a late night call from Middle Son, who could barely speak and said that he was having anaphylaxis - and his roommate was driving him to the hospital. 

My muscle memory kicked in, and I threw on comfy clothes for a long night/early morning in the ER. I also grabbed my phone charger, allergy free snacks, and a drink. 

This isn't my first rodeo. 

My kids have been in the ER countless times due to asthma (made worse by RSV, pneumonia, and wildfire smoke). Of course, they would always get worse in the middle of the night. So I knew what to pack for a sudden late night hospital visit. 

After a quick check in the ER, they would be admitted to the hospital for several days to treat their asthma and lung infection. Usually it was me quickly driving one my kids to the ER and interacting with the hospital staff.  

Advocating for adult kids  

This time, my son was in charge. Since he was well over 18, I had no role except to advocate for him. I let the nurses know that he has severe asthma and has been hospitalized multiple times, including ending up in the ICU twice. 

The nurse said she's glad I told her that my son has severe asthma, because anaphylaxis can be worse when you have asthma. 

In fact, Australian society of clinical immunology and allergy says:

"Asthma is known to increase the risk of fatal anaphylaxis". 

We were in the ER for several hours so they could monitor my son. He had self injected his epi before the ride to the hospital, and they gave him other medicines in the ER.  

When it was time to discharge him, she asked if my son had any questions. My son looked at me and I asked the nurse if they were going to prescribe new epinephrine self injectors. She seemed surprised, but I told her that my son self injected before the hospital, and it was important that he always have 2 epi self injectors at all times.

My doctor has always prescribed two - in case one misfires, or if you have a rebound (the anaphylaxis symptoms come back hours or days after treatment)  

She asked the doctor, and she prescribed two new epi injectors. Phew! I thought that was standard protocol, but I guess not?

We drove through the all night pharmacy to get his epi and steroids. 

Reporting a restaurant for cross contact 

The next day, he filed a report with the local health department about the cross contact in the restaurant. My son said the restaurant had a container of fried rice next to walnut shrimp.  

He suspects that some of the fried rice touched the walnut shrimp, or they used the same serving spoon in both foods. On an earlier visit to the restaurant, he noticed the food spilling from one container to another. He told the staff that it can be dangerous for food to be mixed like that, because people have food allergies and can have an anaphylaxis. 

But the staff member didn't understand why it was a problem to have food spilling over into other containers. 

The manager came out, and she also tried to explain it to the staff member, but he still didn't understand. 

I'm not sure how he passed his food permit class if he didn't understand about cross contact, and how the safety of customers with food allergies is up to him. But what do I know?  

What I do know is that a health inspector visited the restaurant (not sure if they received a citation?) And - my son will never eat there again. 

Has anyone else had to help an adult child with anaphylaxis? It's a scary experience! 

Please stay safe out there if you have food allergies! 

Hugs, 

Andrea