That Feeling When Your Heart is in Your Mouth

Have been so busy this week with kids half term holidays about to start, trying to organise getting some stuff to my husband, party planning for the weekend and Arabic classes, but it all came to a grinding halt this week.

I have been trying to keep up with the Arabic classes and carve out a decent amount of time to dedicate to them.  So on Thursday nights when my classes happen, I get the kids fed and into bed early and I make sure I am ready on time.  Except the best laid plans are not always what Allah (SWT) plans.  

This Thursday I was feeding the baby before class and as I watched I could see red and white raised blotches appear around her ears.  At first I thought she had been bitten and started looking inside her clothes in case some bug had gotten to her.  As I watched I could see the blotches moving around her neck and throat under her armpits and down into her legs.  I've never seen anything like this with any of my kids, so was absolutely terrified.

I was tempted to call an ambulance, but called NHS direct first and they directed me to call my GP for out of hours assistance.  They directed me to the 111 number who booked an appointment for me to take her into the local hospital. 

By this time she had started shrieking and after about five minutes, the blotches started to reduce and she put her thumb in her mouth and quietened down.  I got the kids ready, dropped the children at my mums and then got my dad and sister Kooks to take me to the hospital.

Because I had been given an appointment for the emergency out of hours service, I was seen within ten minutes.  The doctor confidently diagnosed eczema and then realised it was an allergic reaction to something, which Kooks and my sister-in-law had already told me it looked like.

I asked him a few times if it was something I could have eaten as I have been eating pretty poorly for the last few and the doctor assured me it was not.  

Dad then drove us around through different boroughs trying to find a chemist open at night so that we could get her medicine.  Thankfully the scary blotches disappeared and were totally gone by morning.  

I am trying to work out what could have caused the allergy.  I have been supplementing breast milk with formula for the last two weeks.  I tried the Aptamil brand this time (in the past I have used SMA).  I will give it a break for two days and then try again, I will also be very mindful about what I am eating (just in case).

Subhan'Allah, the speed with which the blotches spread scared me and made me think that if this had been something life-threatening, then in the time that an ambulance would have come, considering the speed with which things were happening, what could they have possibly done?  It made me think that only Allah (SWT) can help us in our time of need and not people.

The whole episode also made me think about the hadith:

"Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him maintain the bonds of kinship" ~Bukhari

There was a time when me and my dad were so upset with each other that we were barely speaking and we spoke only because Allah (SWT) forbids us to break kinship ties.  Over the years, more and more I have seen the wisdom and benefit in this command and this week I really saw the point of this teaching when my dad helped when I most needed it.