PSA: Always know where the nearest fire station/EMTs are

"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
07/17/2020 at 15:33 • Filed to: None

Long story short, on vacation last week (socially distanced in the FL panhandle in our very own little house), my 7-year-old daughter got a couple of fire ant bites on her foot. No biggie, we still hopped on our bikes and went for a little cruise around the neighborhood.

Then her ears started itching. Then her back. Within 15 minutes of the bites, most of her body had hives or redness, including her eyelids.

I quickly got her back to the house and gave her some Zyrtec, the only antihistamine I could find. I dug in my wife’s purse for my son’s old Epi-pen, which expired 5 years ago when he outgrew some food allergies. I really didn’t want to have to use it, but just in case.

About this time, my wife comes in and sees the situation, so we all rush out to the car. I’m driving in a semi-strange town while calling 911 to find an urgent care.

We found one! 2 minutes away. Thanks, bye!

It was Sunday. Closed. Google Maps...urgent care...click....closed. Click...closed. Now my daughter is wheezing and complaining about her throat while I’m racing up and down a highway in an unfamiliar area.

Finally, on our fourth 911 call after multiple disconnections, the operator is able to track our call and direct us to the nearest fire station. It was only 2 minutes away, but we never even thought about going TO the ambulance instead of just waiting on it (in fact, the EMTs said “You coming to us probably saved us all 10+ minutes of trying to find you”)

Pulled up to the station, a crew of 5 ran out, assessed, and started treatment immediately — IV antihistamines, epinephrine, and steroids. She was mostly stabilized on the 30-minute ride to the hospital (the one closer hospital urged against bringing kids due to COVID; the one we visited had all pediatric ER patients in an outbuilding away from general population).

The moral of the story is when you go on vacation, don’t forget about EMTs. You can’t always wait on an ambulance, count on 911, or rely on urgent care clinics being open. COVID sure complicated things a bit, but she was as good as new after just a few hours of observation.

I know this will cost a small fortune, but I will never travel anywhere again without knowing where the fire station is. Huge thanks to every first responder out there, what you do is amazing.

The next day, like nothing happened.

DISCUSSION (26)

Just Jeepin' > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 15:46

Glad the story had a (mostly) happy ending. A vacation ruined is no fun at all.

dumpsterfire! > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 15:47

Glad it worked out, anaphalyxis is scary stuff.

AestheticsInMotion > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 15:51

I'm curious what this will cost. Does insurance cover something like this?

foghat1981 > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 15:54

Glad to hear it worked out. I have a buddy on our town’s EMS and when he mentioned a few years ago about just driving up in an emergency, it blew my mind. I never considered that before.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 15:59

I’m glad everything worked out fine. I was about her age when I had an asthma attack while on vacation. I was staying with one of my uncles at the time and he didn’t know what was going on. He either didn’t or couldn’t get in touch with my mom to ask what to do, so they just put me inside with the a/c and waited. Thankfully it wasn’t a critical attack and they were able to reach my mom before it got worse. A few hours (!) later I got a ride to the hospital in his C amaro.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 16:00

Damn! Glad everything worked out, that would be some super scary stuff as a dad! :(

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 16:00

Damn! Glad everything worked out, that would be some super scary stuff as a dad! :(

Brickman > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 16:03

Damn those fire ants. About 6 times I got really bad luck with fire ants. My legs and feet are scarred for life.

ClassicDatsunDebate > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 16:14

Oh man, glad things worked out! I can totally relate...have a kid with an anaphylactic allergy. Benadryl and epi-pens were always close at hand.

Ash78, voting early and often > AestheticsInMotion
07/17/2020 at 16:14

If you’re on a high-deductible plan (which is primarily what most large employers offer now), you basically pay almost everything up to $5k-$10k out of pocket each year. So this might be $1,000 or it might be $5,000. I won’t know any of that until the bills start showing up. On the plus side, there are some discounts here and there, but it’s basically paying cash until you hit your maximum.

It’s basically just a backstop against bankrupting you, which is nice. People who are uninsured might even pay more than that — or just destroy their credit and potentially have their wages garnished to repay it.

Yeah, healthcare is messed up in the US.

To put it another way: If I weren’t on a high-deductible plan, I would have called 911 immediately, not 15 minutes later. That’s hard for me to stomach, but it’s the truth. I didn’t want to overreact, and the financial penalty was the main reason.

onlytwowheels > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 16:20

Great advice.

I can recall more than one family vacation where one of my siblings needed to be rushed to an ER.

I would also recommend to those who vacation with their pets to know where the nearest veterinarian office and 24 hour animal hospital are. My dog had the misfortune of having allergic reactions to bee stings and red ant bites.

Glad it had a good outcome for you all .

HoustonRunner > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 16:21

Good reminder, we are heading to Co lorado (renting a house out in the mountains to escape the heat) in a couple of weeks.

f86sabre > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 16:34

Hugs to you and yours! Glad it ended up ok. Good safety tip as well.

Ash78, voting early and often > ClassicDatsunDebate
07/17/2020 at 16:38

We had epi-pens for my son’s egg allergy, which was never any more than some redness around his lymph nodes (or anywhere with topical contact).

I just can’t believe it took us 7 years to realize our daughter had a fire ant allergy. I swear she’s been bitten 20+ times before, but this might have been a different variety...

Speaking of Epi Jr, the two pack is now about $700 with a 1-year expiration . Generics are about $350. I found a GoodRx coupon code that took it down to $115, but I had to go to a crowded Walmart for it. Worth it, but just barely ;)

jminer > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 16:46

I’m so very sorry but also glad it ended up alright.

My wife has serious allergies so I’ve been in a similar place as you where there’s something serious and unexpected going on which is terrifying. Watching someone you love struggle to breathe is a horrifying experience and you have my sympathy.

PatBateman > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 16:51

PHEW!! I’m glad you got your daughter treated!! Fire ant bites are so hit/miss. I can get bit by 1k and not even have bumps in the morning, but my wife... Let’s just say I made a similar run that you did all the way to the hospital on a trip to a lake cabin in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.

Whatever the cost, it’ll be the best money you’ve ever spent.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 17:02

That’s insane. Last I heard, I think the off-brand Epi- pens up here (Canada) are ~$100 CAD . They supposedly expire in a year, though.

Source: brother who is a pharmacist. I looked into buying one for someone who couldn’t afford one.

ClassicDatsunDebate > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 17:20

As BaconSandwich mentions, Canadians pay ~$100-150 for a Twinject.

And by the way, ours was (is) an egg allergy . So many things to take into consideration, especially when they are younger.

Bryan doesn't drive a 1M > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 17:47

Reading this made me extremely tense. I’m so glad it turned out ok.

ttyymmnn > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 18:27

The moral of the story is that fire ants SUCK.

But seriously, I’m glad it worked out for everybody, and your advice is spot on. I remember many many years ago I was riding down to the Outer Banks with my mom when she started having chest pains . She stopped at the first fire station we could find (it being s outheast VA , near NAS Oceana, there was an abandoned A-7 in the field across the street, which I thought was pretty cool). Turns out my mom was fine, but she got immediate care rather than her having to find a hospital, because that was long before all these pop up ERs.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 18:56

Good to hear everyone’s ok. I went up to NH a few years ago and as soon as I got there we noticed a bullseye and that I was showing the signs for lyme dise ase. I was very lucky to get in an urgent care within an hour before shit started going downhill

Ash78, voting early and often > ClassicDatsunDebate
07/17/2020 at 19:11

My son was an egg allergy for his first ~5 years or so.

FWIW, the US healthcare system does sort of suck, but if you find workarounds (like the coupon) it can get easier. It just sucks that if I walked in, fully insured, I could have paid $700. A few years ago there was no generic. Instead I literally had to waive insurance and pay cash, but got the pair for $115. It’s like a totally legal, yet sort of under-the-table transaction.

Any reputable health system should just charge me $115 with no extra legwork and call it done.

Nom De Plume > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 21:39

There is no downside to being proactive about this. Do keep in mind there are many types of fire ants and many reasons why that exact ant could’ve produced such a violent allergic reaction when the one crawling next to it might not have. Back home there could be a greatly lessened chance of this happening again.

Let me add to those thankful a highly successful solution was found in time to save any further complications. Good job, dad.

John Norris (AngryDrifter) > Ash78, voting early and often
07/17/2020 at 22:16

Great story. Nothing sca rier than having your child’s life in question as you partici pate in the timeline . Sorry you had to go through it but sounds like a reasonably good success story.

Great lesson for all of us. An obvious answer to the problem but not one I would likely think of under duress.

Stef Schrader > Ash78, voting early and often
07/18/2020 at 00:39

Oh wow! Glad she’s okay.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Ash78, voting early and often
07/18/2020 at 11:48

So glad she’s okay!