CHAPTER 10- BAD REACTIONS

It had been fifteen minutes since the administration of the antibiotic when Sandy first suspected there might be a problem. Ryan was growing restless and his coughing which had been almost gone earlier was back. Sandy moved closer to the boy and laid a hand on his forehead hoping to calm him. At the touch Ryan's eyes opened and connected with Sandy.

"Itches." He pleaded.

"What itches, Ryan?" Sandy asked growing concerned.

"Everything, please make it stop." The boy continued squirming even more as if trying to stop the itching.

Sensing something was seriously wrong sandy hit the call button.

"May I help you?" A nearly disinterested sounding voice spoke into the room through Ryan's speakers on his bed.

"Yes, I think my son is having a reaction to his medication."

"We'll be right there." The voice repeated this time with an urgent undertone.

True to the voice's word, Anna, Ryan's nurse was soon in the room.

"What is going on here?" She asked already approaching Ryan and reading off numbers from his chart.

"He started getting really restless and coughing and then he said he was itching everywhere." Sandy spoke up.

"Ryan is that true? Where do you itch? Are you having trouble breathing? How does your throat feel?"

"Everywhere. " Ryan muffled out through coughs. "Throat feels funny sort of tight."

Those words put the nurse in high alert and she hit a button behind Ryan's men that must have signaled the attention of other staff because soon Ryan was surrounded by medical personal. She also pulled back his gown and immediately noticed the presence of hives on his chest and arms.

"He's having an anaphylactic reaction." Anna spoke.

One of the people in the room took command. "I need epinephrine now." Quickly the right dosage was measured out and inserted into Ryan's IV. On top of that his nasal cannula was once more replaced with an oxygen mask on full flow. "I want blood work now. Also disconnect that antibiotic and add an antihistamine to start counteracting the reaction." The man taking command ordered. "Have an intubation tray standing by just in case."

At the words intubation, Ryan's eyes widened and he started moving around in distress. Sandy longed to be next to him to sooth him and calm his fears, but there were too many people already surrounding him. Thankfully Anna seemed to sense hi fear and moved to calm him.

"Shh Ryan. Calm down everything is going to be okay. We caught things quick the doctor is just being cautious I don't think we'll need that equipment. You just keep taking slow deep breaths and let the new medications due their job. You're going to be fine." She whispered into his ear gently stroking the frightened teens hand at the same time.

The next minutes felt like an eternity for Sandy, but it seemed the counter measures were working and gradually the number of people in the room began to decrease. Finally the man who had seemed to take charge spoke up.

"Well Ryan that was quite a scare you just gave us. I am Doctor Hanson the intern on call for the evening. I think we have everything under control for now and we can safely say that tetracycline is not an antibiotic to use on you in the future. I guess will add that to your long list of allergies. Is there any antibiotic you have safely had?"

"I know I had vancomyicin in the hospital once." Ryan managed to say between breaths of oxygen.

"Hmm that's a pretty strong drug but it's good to know.

"I think I had Biaxin last time I got tonsillitis."

"That's a better option. I'll note that. By now we should have your blood work back from earlier and we can see what kind of infection you were working on. If that class of antibiotics will work with it then we'll start you on that to avoid another reaction."

"Okay." Ryan said sleepily.

"Well it looks like the antihistamines are kicking in and making you tired. Rest is the best thing for you so don't fight it. Hopefully by morning all of this will just be like a bad dream."

"Yeah." Ryan muttered as he let his eyes drift closed.

Seeing his son fall asleep, Sandy stepped into the hall with the doctor.

"Is he really going to be alright?" Sandy inquired.

"Yes. He's still fighting of an infection but apart from a setback in recovery it doesn't appear to be life threatening. We caught the allergic reaction in time and now we know to avoid it. It may be smart to have some allergy testing done on him in the future to try and avoid this kind of thing, but otherwise Ryan is doing fine. His oxygen levels went down with the reaction, but now he's responding to treatment and they are climbing back up. His fever hasn't risen to a dangerous level so mostly he's just uncomfortable. He most likely picked up a minor respiratory infection due to his weakened state. It's not pneumonia though and we caught it early. He's in good hands Mr. Cohen."

"Thanks I needed to hear that."

"No problem if you have more questions let the nurse know."

"I will thanks again." With that said Sandy returned to keep watch over his son and prayed that the evening's excitement was done.