Allergies and Earthquakes
So, back to my vacation.
The day after the Aquarium of the Pacific, we spent the day with my grandparents. My grandpa made us a huge breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon and toast. My grandpa always overfeeds us. I love it!
California was uncharacteristically cool during our visit, but because my 4 year old cousin was also there, my grandparents brought out the small inflatable pool. Much fun was had, especially since my grandma hooked one hose up to her garage sink and the pool had warm water. Great-grandchildren get special treatment, I tell you. I don’t remember her giving us warm water when I was a kid.
Earlier in the day, though, I was in the living room my children. Philip was out in the front yard, talking to his brother on the phone. I was playing Uno with Boo and Pumpkin Girl and Bip was happily playing cars on the floor. I had my back to Bip as I faced the other children during our card game.
I felt and heard a little rumbling. I’m used to that, living right across the river from an airport. But this rumbling increased and the house was actually moving. I realized what was going on! The picture of calm, I stood up, grabbed Boo and Pumpkin by their arms, told them, “We’re having an earthquake” and hauled them to the nearest doorway. I told them to just stand there. The rumbling continued and as it settled down, who should appear at my side, but Bip.
I had forgotten my baby.
I left him to fend for himself.  Good thing he likes being with us so much that he just followed where we went.
All was well. The phone rang several times as my aunts, mother and cousin called to check in. We watched the news and discovered that the earthquake registered 5.4 and was centered in Chino Hills.
We settled down, had lunch and then it was time for Bip’s nap.
I put him down in my aunt’s bedroom. He’d been in this room often and had pet her cat that lives there. He’s spent lots of time in other houses with cats and even chased down and pet those cats. He’s never had any sort of reactions.
Well, he was falling asleep, then was woken up by a loud noise outside and then tried to get back to sleep. When he’s very tired he rubs his face into something soft, usually me. This time he rubbed his face into the blanket. A few minutes later he was rubbing his eyes incessantly. I told him to stop and go to sleep and he told me his eyes hurt. They were red from the rubbing, or so I thought. He just kept rubbing and then I saw they were swelling. I whisked him away and put him in my grandma’s room. I hoped that removing him from the allergen would stop the reaction. Nope. His eyes just kept swelling until finally I realized it was time for Benedryl. I keep it with me in my purse, usually against bug bites. Fortunately he chewed it up readily, probably because I had a chocolate chip cookie chaser waiting for him.
Poor little guy! He didn’t even look like himself anymore! The Benedryl stopped the swelling, but it took him until mid-morning the next day for it to go completely away.
Right now we have no idea what caused that reaction. Was it cat dander? Is it possible that he never had enough cat contact to trigger a reaction before this? Could it have been him rubbing his face right into the blanket? It had been washed but the cat had access to it. Or could it be something else, like the detergent used? It’s definitely worth having him tested for.
An usual day to be sure. Mystery allergies and earthquakes – who’d a thunk it?
