Fire Ant Allergy

After Jack's last hive outbreak, we noticed that he had a couple of fire ant bits on his foot, with one of them being in the center of the swelling. We went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago for blood tests. While waiting for the results, the doctor went ahead and prescribed him an EpiPen and a steroid cream in case he had another encounter with fire ants.

We went back to the doctor today to discuss the results of the bloodwork, which confirmed he is allergic to fire ants. His readings were pretty high (10.5, which is a level III, almost a IV). For now, we are treating his reaction as a skin-only systemic one (not anaphylactic). While he did throw up during his last reaction, we don't know if it was because of the reaction or just the stress of it. We do have a plan of action for the next time he's bit/stung (because we know there will be a next time since we live in Texas), and we will have to just watch and see. He will probably need allergy shots eventually but not now.

During the doctor's visit, we practiced with the EpiPen tester. We even practiced on Jack a few times so he will be familiar with it if we ever do have to use it, and Mara learned what to do as well.

Jack and I were actually pretty wet during the appointment because we ran into this storm on the way to the doctor's office. (Mara was fast enough to get inside without getting too wet.)