Glad to hear your daughter is OK

Nothing is more frightening than having something the matter with your child and not knowing what is going on.

Later on, a bee sensitivity test might be a good idea. She can get an epi pen to carry with her. I think they have one that even a child can dial the syringe out to their body weight and self inject the epinephrine. I used to have one years ago…but my asthma and allergies have improved with age.

One thing about your story concerns me…and it mirrors a trend I see as an inspector in the health care field. Hospitals are too quick to discharge patients–especially children–before making sure that the patient is stable. Any physician in this situation should have seen the potential for anaphylactic shock. They should have admitted for observation–especially since the swelling site was so close to the airway.

I had this battle years ago when my son…then a toddler..had bronchitis. I wanted him evaluated for pneumonia. The radiologist was off duty and the resident wasn’t confident about his x-ray read. They wanted to send us home with an AB…"call us in the morning…" –type situation. I insisted they admit him.

Well, I turned out to be totally wrong..it was just bronchitis…no infiltrate, no pneumonia. The pulmo guy came down to the room and he was actually pretty decent about it. He said, "yeah, well–I got a kid, too. I probably would have done the same thing…" It’s your kid and you wanna be safe…

Joel