Family... got your doodles, yet?

[Wilson]

We had our Pack day campers get together for doodle-making Sunday afternoon and I think they came out cute :). Did you get your den assignments today? I've got 2 dens going and I'm working as a SL all week and dh is a WL Th-F. DS2 is going to Camp Grammy for the week because I'm a little freaked out about the potential for fireants when I can't be *right there* with him, Epi Pen in hand. But I'm really getting excited about Day Camp - it's going to be a lot of fun!

[FamilyGal]

Our doodle making day is the Saturday after next, when we hand out t-shirts. We can't do it this week since we have our Fishing Day. I have no idea what I am even going to do for doodles this year! I was thinking of some sheriff badges, arrowheads, something along those lines. (Guess I should start thinking more about it, huh?)

We did get our den assignments today. One of our boys registered late and wasn't on it. I hope he is able to be with our den.

[Wilson]

I'm sure it won't be a problem to fit him in. I was surprised how large the dens are... I just wasn't expecting that, since this is my first year of going. One of the veteran dads in our pack came up with the idea for our doodles. Not sure how "Frontier" they are, but they are Native American, feathers, and sometimes beads & leather, so there ya go. The kids had a lot of fun and I was able to check off the training for the adults. Good idea to do it after Roundtable... I didn't know until today that they'd give out the shirts then. Last year they only gave them out at setup, iirc?

[FamilyGal]

Your doodles don't have to go along with the theme. Yours sound really cute though. The boys will love the feathers.

Are you going to Roundtable? If so, we (dh and I) will see you there!

[Wilson]

I was wanting to go - to at least pick up the t-shirts. I'll let our new CC so I can maybe save him a trip and I'll look for you there!

[LarkinJoanna]

You got one allergic to fire ants? I had one allergic to bees. We had to carry an epi pen around for a few years. He had the bee venom series of shots for four years - once a week. I have a sister who had the same allergy. She had to have the anti-venom shots for years.

[Wilson]

You got one allergic to fire ants? I had one allergic to bees. We had to carry an epi pen around for a few years. He had the bee venom series of shots for four years - once a week. I have a sister who had the same allergy. She had to have the anti-venom shots for years.

It's fun, no? (major sarcasm there)

We haven't done shots, yet. I am planning to get both my kids into an allergist this summer and see what we can do. Yes, my youngest has stopped breathing 3 times (maybe it was just twice? feels like 3, though!) with the fireants. So far, he just swells really bad with other things (1 wasp sting and then something else but we never figured out what it was he was stung by). My grandfather has anaphylactic reaction to bees; I'm guessing this is were ds' comes from - they usually seem to run in families, no? Both my kids seem to just be allergic to Texas :p

[LarkinJoanna]

My sister almost died of a bee sting when she was eight years old. They made pictures of her in the ER for medical jounals. Her entire body was swollen like a balloon. She was totally unrecognizable.

My son got stung when he was 15 out playing golf with my dad. His face, chest and neck started swelling. At that time we didn't know he was allergic. When he got to my dad's house he had started swelling all over. Dad called me and asked what to do (he should have known what to do since his own daughter had the same problem). He had liquid Benedryl at the house so I told him to have son to just tip the bottle up and start drinking it and to take him to the ER.

The doctors think he's protected now after the five year treatment program. I hope so because he doesn't carry an Epi pin any longer. The Epi pin thing is difficult because it's not supposed to get hot. We carried it in a cooler at sports events but as he got older it was a problem especially when I didn't go to events he didn't want to bother with it. Plus, he played golf in high school and that was especially difficult to carry around and keep it cool. Plus, always remembering to get a new one each year when the old one expired was a pain.

The doctors used to tell my parents to keep a bottle of Benedryl on hand if my sister was stung and just to turn the bottle up and start drinking it. They didn't prescribe epi pins back then.

[Wilson]

We're always done the liquid Benadryl on the way to the hospital. It's so interesting to me how reactions are different. The first time this happened, my youngest was about 15 months and got into fireants while in the front garden (I was in the house and had a Mother's Helper here with the kids outside). She brought him in and his legs looked so bad, so I slathered him with topical Benadryl and have him a teaspoon or so orally. We had an appointment near Oak Ridge that I was meeting dh for, so I sent the MH home and left with the kids. We're sitting in our meeting and the kids are playing and I notice something with ds2's face... I really thought it was the light, so I picked him up and looked again. There was a faint red line forming down the middle of his face... like a stripe. As it got brighter, I asked the people in the room if they saw it too (lol - I really didn't believe what I was seeing), and when I knew that I wasn't the only one seeing this, I thought I'd take him to the urgent care that was closeby... I'd swear that it was only 5 more minutes, but by the time we got there, his face looked like the biggest, ripest, plumpest tomato I'd ever seen. It was totally distorted and looked like a cartoon drawing, y/k? I'll never forget it. They got him right back, checked his throat, and gave him a shot. After the 2nd time, I asked our regular doctor for the epi-pens.

IKWYM about keeping the pens cool. I don't even bother to carry them - I'd just leave it in the car. We've always kept a set at home and at his school. I do always have Benadryl on me though... it at least buys us some time to get to the hospital.