Hello again, dear enemy.

Anyone want to guess what bubba got a hold of today? If you said nutmeg, you'd be correct. He has this obsession lately with taking things out of the garbage and if it's a drink he tries to drink it. I turned my back for half a second at school today, and he grabbed a Coke out of the trashcan that still had a bit in it. And he drank from it.

It was a split second, I took it from him immediately. But he still got some. He then proceeded to break out in hives and started having trouble breathing. I was terrified. I wanted to give him his epipen, but then my brain decided to chime in: you're overreacting. He didn't get any. Those aren't hives, one of his little friends accidentally grabbed him or something. He just had to cough. Then struggle to take a breath. If you give him his epipen, you'll be doing more harm than good. You don't know what that thing will do if this isn't an allergic reaction.

So I left work early, obviously. I put him in his car seat and didn't give him his pacifier so that I could listen to him scream the entire drive, all the while just thinking "thank God I know he's breathing."

At that point, he wasn't having trouble breathing anymore, but he kept grabbing his belly and saying :owie". When we got to the doctor, his belly was still covered in hives, as was his back, but the ones on his face and arms were fading. They gave him some benadryl and said we were okay this time. I didn't take him to the ER because I figured if he was breathing okay then he maybe didn't need the emergency room, but a doctor's visit was still a good idea.

He's okay now, thankfully. This is going to be something I don't ever forget. The sheer terror I felt was incomparable. I just kept thinking "I should've just given him the epipen. I should've called 911. My child is going to die, and it's my fault."

But he's okay. He's breathing and kicking and being crazy. And you can bet that I'm going to fight to keep him that way.