Egg and Soldiers

It was a sunny sunday morning Spring/Summer 2010, my partner had been downstairs cleaning the pub and was getting ready for football so it would be around 8.30/9am. Mum had just arrived at the pub to start preparing food for the busy Sunday Carvery.

Tillie had been a bit fussy that morning and didn't really want her breakfast so I went downstairs to see if mum could think of anything else I could get Tillie to try for her breakfast, she suggested trying egg and soldiers. Tillie had been on solids for a while and with Tillie being lactose intollerant I always tended to use jars or make my own food so I knew there was nothing in there to hurt her little belly.

Nick was stood with me as we watched Tillie's face in anticipation as we did when we tried her on anything new....does she like it? will she squirm?
A matter of seconds after she tried the tiniest bit of yolk on a 'soldier' she started rubbing round her face, rubbing her nose, her mouth and sniffing lots. Mum had come up to see her reactions and I noticed purple blotches were appearing on Tillie's face, it all became a bit of a blur after that. But I remember saying 'I'm not happy i think she needs to go to hospital" Luckily Nick hadn't left for football and taken the car!

Tillie had big red/purple hives on her face, her eyes looked swollen and I was extra worried with her having laryngomalacia that if this was an allergic reaction then there was a chance that she could struggle to breathe.
I rang the out of hours drs but got Nick to put Tillie in the car whilst I grabbed her changing bag, even as minutes passed all around her mouth the rash was getting more vivid, it was as if everywhere the egg had made contact with a hive appeared. However this hadn't clicked at the time, I had just watched a programme the night before about a little baby who had been fussy in the morning then wouldn't eat their food and purple rash appeared which turned out to be meningitis. All sorts of things were going trough my mind. Even though Tillie seemed fine in herself.

We were heading up to the hospital incase she did have breathing difficulties but as we pulled out of the pub car park a nurse rang me. Tillie was extremely tired as it was time for her morning nap and with the movement of the car it was sending her to sleep.
The nurses first questions "is she responding"
"Tillie? Tillie - let me explain to you she has just tried egg for the first time and this has happened, she is due her nap and we are in the car on our way just incase she had breathing problems so she is very drowsy and can't keep her eyes open but I am sure that is because like I said she is due for her nap"
"Is she having any breathing difficulies"
"well no but she does have laryngomalacia and her breathing is particularly loud as she is tired and has been crying"
"What colour is the rash?"
"well purplely reddy"
"Does it disappear under pressure"
"I am in the car and do not have a tumbler with me but if I put pressure on it, it isnt fading completely"
"Can she bear to look at the light"
"well we have just gone round a corner and the sun is extremely bright which she just squinted and turned her head away from but so did i"

With that Tillie looked a very grey colour and her eyes started rolling, they looked all strange, bright red but almost jelly like. I am sure that was just purely because she was so extremely tired and couldn't stay awake any longer.
The nurse advised us to get straight up to A&E i knew she thought it was meningitis from her reactions to the questions which of course her reading off a screen and with the answers I had given she had to follow the 'correct' procedure and not take into account Tillie had just tried egg. I remember Nick asking me if she was ok, to which I replied "please can you change the subject I think I am going to be sick maybe we shouldn't talk" I was so so frightened.

I remember running to sign her in at the reception desk whilst Nick got her out of the car and put her in her pushchair, I was so scared and just hoped and prayed that she would be ok as the last image of those jelly like eyes rolling was horrendous.
A few moments later I saw her pushchair and looked in to see a big smiling face and she gave me the biggest kiss, I couldn't see through the big tears in my eyes I have never been so relieved in my life.
She came round so so quickly, she still had the hives and her eyes were completely pink/red there was no white at all.
The Doctor saw her eventually and gave us some piriton but said "I don't think this is an allergic reaction to egg, it might have been the bread"......WHAT!!

After that we had to go back to the Doctor's a number of times, I took photographic evidence of the rash whenever she had it even though she never had anothing thing with egg in it.
I began to realise that if I had any contact with egg, for example, One morning I had a slice of sticky toffee meringue pie and picked her up when she had just her nappy on - her torso was covered in hives.

Another example, a customer had Gammon with egg, Tillie dropped her toy near the customer who kindly bent down and passed it back to her, she then pput the toy near her face to cuddle it and her face was covered.

When mentioning this to the Doctor he said unless she was extremely allergic to egg then this wouldn't happen, she was sent for skin sensitivity testing and a consultaion with a specialist which proved instantly that she is allergic to egg in all of its forms and we were advised to avoid contact with egg and I was correct that if I made contact with egg and touched her then she would get hives.

The specialist informed us that there is a small chance that her reaction could get worse as time went on, we now have an Epi-pen and piriton style medicine that we take everywhere with us. After she has been egg free and had no further reactions then we are to take her back for further testings.
Unfortunately as she is getting older and comes in contact with more things she has had a few more reactions which were out of my control, but a spoonful of medicine soon clears it up and touch wood we have never had to use the Epi-pen it is more for peace of mind.

Any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me :-)